GIFT  OF 
Prol.    E.J  .ftickson 


MAIN  LIBWARY-AGRlCUt-TUWE  DEFT 


Olultun? 


A  Complete  Guide 
In  Growing  Onions  for  Profit 


By   T.    GREINER 

Rewritten  and  Greatly  Enlarged 


,  New  York 

ORANGE    JUDD    COMPANY 

1903 


- 


*Ul»UMIAItY. 


Copyright  1903 
By  ORANGE  JUDD  COMPANY 


THE    STORY    of 


The  \ 

New  Onion 
Culture 


526662 


CONTENTS 


PREFACE 

THE  WHY  AND  WHEREFORES,  a  sort  of  introduction. 

A  fable — The  cat's  trick — History  of  the  new 

onion    culture — Blessings    of    an    own    home — 

Large   scale   operations — Horticultural   training 

for  your  boy. 

CHAPTER    I 

WELL  BEGUN,  HALF  DONE.   How  the  plants  are  grown  I 

Procuring  seed — Growing  seed — Plants  in 
boxes — Hotbeds — Sowing  the  seed — Fire  hot- 
beds— Hotbeds  heated  by  waste  steam — Cheap 
greenhouses — Plants  for  sale — Damping  off — 
Soils  for  flats,  frames  and  benches — Trimming 
the  plants  while  growing. 

'  CHAPTER    II 

As  You  MAKE  YOUR  BED,  so  you  will  lie        .        .  13 

What  soil  to  select — How  to  manure  and 
prepare  it — The  best  soil — Onions  on  muck — 
Sandy  loam — Clean  soil  essential — Manuring 
the  land — An  onion  and  strawberry  combina- 
tion— Preparing  the  soil. 

CHAPTER     III 

A   DIFFICULTY   EASILY   OVERCOME.    How    the   plants 

are  set  in  open  ground 21 

The  real  work — One  advantage  of  trans- 
planting— Width  of  planting — Marking  the  land 
— Trimming  the  plants  before  setting — Setting 
plants — Planting  machines. 

CHAPTER    IV 

PERSEVERANCE  THAT  PAYS,.     Tillage  as  moisture  pre- 
server and  weed  killer 32 

Objects  of  cultivation — Tools  of  tillage — 
Hand  weeding — Mulching — Irrigation. 

vii 


Vlll  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER     V 

A  TIMELY  PULL  AND  HAUL.     When  and  how  to  har- 
vest   the    crop        .......  38 

Danger  in  delay — Signs  of  maturity — Curing 
t   the     crop — Curing     sheds — An     onion     storage 
house. 

CHAPTER    VI 

THE  FRAGRANT  BULB  ON  SALE 44 

The  Prizetaker  a  Pricetaker — An  inventory 
— Crating  onions  —  The  crates  —  Wintering 
onions. 

CHAPTER     VII 

ALL'S   WELL   THAT   ENDS    WELL  ....  51 

Advantages  and  profits  of  the  new  way — Five 
advantages  of  the  new  method  —  Estimate  of 
cost  and  profits. 

CHAPTER    VIII 

THE  OLD  ONION   CULTURE 55 

Sowing  seed  in  the  open  ground — Drilling 
in  the  seed — After  culture — Buying  seed — 
Onions  for  pickling — Growing  sets. 

CHAPTER     IX 
SOILS  AND  MANURES  FOR  ONIONS          ....  70 

CHAPTER    X 
ONJON   VARIETIES .  75 

CHAPTER    XI    . 
INSECTS  AND  DISEASES  AFFECTING  THE  ONION  CROP  87 

CHAPTER    XII 

ONION  GROWING  IN  THE  SOUTH 105 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  108 

CONCLUSION  .  112 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Frontispiece — The  Author 

2.  The  Story  of  the  New  Onion  Culture      ...  v 

3.  Yellow    Prizetaker    Onion                  4.  2 

4.  Plants  Ready  for  Transplanting        ....  3 

5.  Hotbed  in   Sunken   Pit       ......  4 

6.  Hotbed   on   Level    Ground         ....  5 

7.  Forcing  Pit  Covered  with  Hotbed   Sash        .  '       7 

8.  Small    Greenhouse — Elevation             ...  8 

9.  Small    Greenhouse — Cross    Section    ...  9 

10.  A  Well-Prepared  Seed  Bed       ....  II 

11.  A  Perfect  Crop  of  Gibraltar  Onions        .        .  14 

12.  Row  of  Scallions 15 

13.  Onions  in  the  New  Strawberry  Bed        .        .  16 

14.  Disk   Harrow    -'•'.' 17 

15.  Acme  Harrow 18 

16.  Meeker   Smoothing  Harrow       .        .        .        .    ;  19 

17.  Old   Style   Garden    Marker        .        .        .      '  .   ', ,  22 

18.  Single  Tooth  Attachment          .        .        -'•',>•  23 

19.  Three-Tooth    Marker          .   '~V       ...  23 

20.  Tracing  Wheel   Marker      .        .        .    .     .',-'.  24 

21.  Setting  the  Plants  with  Dibber       ..«"'•'     .               .,  25 

22.  Old  Kitchen  Knife  as  Dibber    .        .        .        .  26 

23.  Dibber   .        .        .        .        .                 ...  26 

24.  Trimming  the   Plants          ,     ,    .        .  -     .   /    .        .  27 

25.  Wrong   Way         .        .        .        ...        .        .  28 

26.  Right   Way 28 

27.  Plant  Set  Right  Depth 29 

28.  Plant    Set   Too    Deep 30 

29.  Iron  Age  Hand  Wheel   Hoe    ...        .        .  33 

30.  Wheel  Hoe  in  Operation  in  the  Onion  Field    .        .  34 

31.  Single   Wheel   Hoe 35 

32.  Lang's  Hand  Weeder 35 

33.  Homemade    Onion   Hoe 36 

34.  Onion  Curing  Shed •  39 

35.  An   Onion    Curing    Crib 40 

36.  Michigan  Onion  Storage  House        .                 .        .  42 

37.  Bunch  of  Prizetaker  Onions 45 


X  ILLUSTRATIONS 

38.  Prizetaker  Onions  Crated  for  Market      ...  47 

39.  Iron  Age  Garden  Drill  in  Operation        ...  56 

40.  Comparative   Size  of  Round  Onions        ...  59 

41.  Comparative  Size  of  Flat  Onions    ....  60 

42.  Homemade  Pickling  Onion   Sieve    ....  62 

43.  Assorted   Barletta   Onions 63 

44.  Egyptian  or  Perennial  Tree  Onion  65 

45.  Onion  Field  in  Bloom 66 

46.  Onion  Seed  Ready  for  Harvesting    ....  67 

47.  Potato  Onion  or  Multiplier 76 

48.  Large  Red  Wethersfield      ......  78 

49.  White  Tripoli  Onion  83 

50.  Beaulieu's  Hardy  White  Onion        ....  84 

51.  The  Onion   Maggot 88 

52.  Plant  Attacked  by  Thrips          .....  90 


PREFACE 


In  bringing  this  revised  and  enlarged  treatise  on 
the  new  way  of  growing  onions  by  the  method  which 
has  become  famous  under  the  name  "new  onion  cul- 
ture" before  the  public,  the  author  makes  no  pretense 
of  believing  that  there  is  a  lack  of  literature  on  the 
subject  of  onion  culture  in  America.  On  the  contrary, 
he  willingly  and  freely  concedes  that  all  phases  of  the 
culture  of  this  vegetable  have  found  a  most  liberal 
consideration  at  the  hands  of  the  writers  of  books, 
pamphlets,  bulletins  and  agricultural  newspaper  arti- 
cles. The  author  himself  has  been  guilty  of  adding 
largely  to  the  mass  of  printed  matter  on  onions.  All 
this,  however,  together  with  the  large  sales  which  most 
of  the  more  popular  treatises  on  onion  growing  have 
met  with  right  along,  only  proves  the  great  importance 
of  the  subject. 

The  first  edition  of  The  New  Onion  Culture  wras 
issued  in  the  spring  of  1891,  and  had  to  be  followed 
by  new  editions  in  rapid  succession  to  meet  the  unex- 
pected demand;  yet  this  demand  still  continues.  No 
further  excuse  will  therefore  be  offered  for  this  attempt 
to  take  the  subject  in  hand  once  more,  and  to  bring  the 
"new  onion  culture"  into  renewed  and  thoroughly 
up-to-date  form. 

Many  hundreds  of  experiment  station  and  de- 
partment bulletins  and  reports  on  the  onion  have  been 
issued,  a  list  of  which  will  be  given  later  on.  A  veg- 

xi 


Xll  PREFACE 

etable  that  has  commanded  so  much  and  so  long 
continued  intense  attention,  cannot  be  without  great 
merit,  nor  without  unusual  promise  as  a  profitable 
crop.  True,  the  onion  has  often  been  looked  upon  as 
the  pariah  among  vegetables.  Yet  the  great  majority 
of  people  are  inordinately  fond  of  onion  flavor,  even 
if  some  try  to  hide  their  liking  for  it  as  if  they  were 
ashamed  of  it.  As  a  money  crop,  too,  the  despised 
onion  occupies  a  front  rank.  Its  annual  production 
in  the  United  States  runs  high  up  into  the  millions  of 
bushels.  The  importations,  especially  of  the  large 
sweet  or  Spanish  type  of  onions  during  spring  and 
early  summer,  also  represent  a-  large  figure,  reaching 
sometimes  close  to  the  million-bushel  mark  for  the  year. 

My  own  earlier  interest  in  onion  growing  was 
revived  by  the  introduction,  in  1889,  of  the  Prizetaker 
onion,  a  variety  of  that  large  and  very  mild  Spanish 
type  which  we  now  import  in  still  considerable  quan- 
tities from  abroad.  The  bulbs,  in  my  (then)  New 
Jersey  sandy  loam  grew  so  beautiful  and  perfect,  and 
of  such  large  size  (although  grown  by  the  old  method, 
from  seed  sown  in  open  ground  in  spring),  that  I 
became  really  enthusiastic  about  the  possibilities  hidden 
in  the  crop.  In  my  further  experiments  with  this 
novelty,  I  stumbled,  in  1890,  upon  the  method  now 
generally  known  as  "the  new  onion  culture." 

The  new  plan  may  now  be  safely  said  to  have 
passed  the  experimental  stage.  It  has  stood  the  ordeal 
of  a  dozen  years  of  trial,  and  sometimes  of  hostile 
criticism  or  prejudice.  But  it  has  slowly  made  its 
way  into  favor  with  those  growers  who  understand  its 
scope  and  purport,  and  has  made  money  for  them. 
Already  in  1893  I  quoted  from  a  letter  then  just 
received  from  Mr  A.  I.  Root  of  Medina,  Ohio,  the 
publisher  of  Gleanings  in  Bee  Culture,  and  himself 
known  as  an  enthusiastic  gardener,  as  follows,  viz: — 


PREFACE  Xlll 

"In  regard  to  new  points  in  vegetable  gardening 
during  the  past  season,  I  believe  what  has  been  called 
'the  new  onion  culture'  has  made  the  most  stir.  At 
one  of  the  farmers'  institutes,  I  gave  them  a  talk  on 
the  matter  and  exhibited  some  samples  of  large,  fine 
Spanish  onions.  After  I  got  through  I  felt  a  little 
afraid  my  talk  had  been  pretty  extravagant,  and  some 
of  my  hearers,  I  was  told,  criticised  me  a  good  deal. 
They  said,  'Oh,  yes,  Root  can  talk,  especially  when 
he  buys  manure  from  the  livery  stables,  and  puts  on 
more  of  it  to  the  acre  than  an -acre  of  our  ground  is 
worth ;  but  what  good  does  such  talk  do  us  ?' 

"You  may  perhaps  surmise  there  were  some  among 
my  hearers  of  the  class  that  claim  'farming  don't  pay/ 
Well,  a  few  days  ago,  a  man  I  had  seen  a  few  times, 
came  into  the  office  and  said  he  had  something  down 
stairs  for  me  to  look  at.  On  the  way  down  he  asked 
if  I  remembered  my  talk  in  the  winter.  Then  he  said 
he  had  bought  some  seed,  and  had  been  at  work  trying 
the  new  onion  culture.  I  felt  afraid  he  had  failed, 
and  was  going  to  blame  me  for  my  enthusiastic  state- 
ments of  what  might  be  done  on  a  single  acre.  By 
this  time  we  reached  the  place  where  he  had  left  his 
basket  of  onions.  They  were  just  beauties,  and  you 
ought  to  have  seen  his  face  while  he  held  them  up  and 
told  me  how  he  did  it.  He  hadn't  any  greenhouse  nor 
hotbed,  so  he  raised  the  plants  in  boxes  in  the  kitchen 
window,  and  planted  them  out  in  ordinary  clay  soil 
such  as  farmers  use  for  corn  and  potatoes.  I  asked 
him  if  he  had  found  a  market  for  them,  and  he  replied : 
'  'Why,  bless  your  heart,  Mr  Root,  there  isn't  any 
trouble  at  all  about  the  market.  My  neighbors  right 
around  me  will  take  every  last  onion  at  one  dollar  per 
bushel,  and  I  just  wanted  to  see  you,  and  tell  that  you 
wasn't  extravagant  a  bit  in  telling  what  a  farmer  might 
do  if  he  had  only  the  will  to  do  it.' 


XIV  PREFACE 

"Another  man  in  the  same  neighborhood  raised  a 
wagon  load  in  the  same  way,  and  brought  them  to 
Medina,  and  sold  them  at  once  for  eighty  cents  per 
bushel  at  a  time  when  ordinary  onions  were  bringing 
thirty  cents  per  bushel." 

I  might  tell  a  good  many  instances  of  a  similar 
kind  from  my  experiences  during  the  past  few  years. 
It  is  generally  found,  that  if  the  trial  is  made  properly, 
and  under  circumstances  not  exactly  unfavorable,  the 
result  will  be  such  as  to  make  anyone  with  a  natural 
instinct  for  gardening,  just  as  much  of  an  enthusiast 
as  the  man  in  Mr  Root's  story. 

After  a  full  baker's  dozen  years  of  experience  in 
growing  onions  by  the  new  system,  I  am  still  in  doubt 
whether  to  recommend  it  for  general  purposes  of  onion 
growing  or  not.  Theoretically  I  see  no  objection  to 
the  substitution  of  the  new  for  the  old  way  even  for 
the  production  of  the  crop  of  ordinary  onion  varieties 
for  fall  and  winter  use.  The  fact  is  to-day  recognized 
by  all  authorities,  and  stands  without  dispute,  that 
every  one  of  our  common  onion  sorts  gives  much 
larger  individual  bulbs  when  the  seedlings  are  started 
early  under  glass  than  when  seed  is  sown  in  open 
ground  in  spring,  as  is  the  practice  of  the  old  style. 
The  crop  is  easily  twice,  possibly  three  and  more  times 
as  large. 

Farmers'  Bulletin  39,  issued  by  the  United  States 
department  of  agriculture  in  1896,  says:  "Experi- 
ments have  demonstrated  that  the  transplanting  system 
has  many  advantages,  the  most  important  of  which  is, 
perhaps,  the  increase  in  yield.  This  increase  is  due  to 
several  causes.  The  plants  receive  a  good  start  under 
glass  before  they  are  set  in  the  field,  and  thus  have  the 
full  advantage  of  the  cool  spring  weather,  which  is 
most  favorable  to  rapid  growth;  when  sown  in  the 
field,  a  month  or  more  is  consumed  before  the  plants 


PREFACE  XV 

are  fairly  started.  This  is  a  very  important  consider- 
ation in  the  South,  where  the  hot,  dry  weather  may 
arrive  very  soon.  Transplanting-,  if  properly  per- 
formed, always  secures  a  full  stand,  which  is  uncertain 
where  the  seed  is  sown  in  open  ground.  Pulling  the 
plants  results  in  more  or  less  root  pruning,  and  this 
doubtless  exerts  some  beneficial  influence  on  the  yield. 

"Experiments  at  many  agricultural  experiment 
stations  show  how  material  is  the  increased  yield.  At 
the  Ohio  station  ten  selected  transplanted  Prizetaker 
bulbs  weighed  eight  pounds  and  four  ounces ;  the  same 
number  of  bulbs,  not  transplanted,  four  pounds  and 
four  ounces ;  Pompeii,  transplanted,  seven  pounds  and 
six  ounces;  not  transplanted,  four  pounds  and  one 
ounce ;  White  Victoria,  transplanted,  eight  pounds  and 
six  ounces ;  not  transplanted,  three  pounds  and  seven 
ounces ;  Yellow  Danvers,  transplanted,  five  pounds ;  not 
transplanted,  two  pounds  and  six  ounces.  Trans- 
planting gave  a  decided  increase  with  each  of  the 
fourteen  varieties  tried,  amounting  to  one  hundred  per 
cent  in  some  cases. 

"At  the  Michigan  station  transplanted  Prizetaker 
onions  gave  a  yield  of  548  bushels  per  acre,  while 
bulbs  not  transplanted  yielded  only  216  bushels; 
Southport,  transplanted,  296  bushels  per  acre;  not 
transplanted,  172  ;  Giant  Rocca,  transplanted,  556  bush- 
els ;  not  transplanted,  no.  Experiments  at  the  Rhode 
Island  station  gave  a  decided  increase  with  Yellow 
Danvers,  Red  Wethersfield  and  White  Portugal.  Red 
Wethersfield  onions  transplanted  at  the  Tennessee 
station  yielded  823  bushels  per  acre,  while  those  not 
transplanted  produced  at  the  rate  of  206  bushels. 
North  Dakota  station  reports  experiments  with  several 
varieties,  including  Yellow  Danvers,  in  which  trans- 
planted onions  gave  an  increase  from  four  to  five  times 


XVI  PREFACE 

as  great  as  those  not  transplanted.  This  enormous 
increase  in  North  Dakota  is  due  to  the  abundance  of 
rain  during  the  early  spring." 

In  practice,  the  large  growers  of  fall  and  winter 
onions  in  the  great  onion  growing  sections  of  the  New 
England  states,  New  York,  Ohio,  Michigan,  etc,  have 
been  reluctant  to  make  the  change  in  their  methods. 
For  myself,  I  will  confess,  that  if  I  had  an  ideal  onion 
soil,  and  were  growing  standard  varieties  for  fall  and 
winter  market,  the  Yellow  Danvers,  Yellow  or  White 
Globes,  etc,  I  am  not  even  now  prepared  to  say  that  I 
would  not  grow  them  by  the  old  plan,  and  I  am  dis- 
posed to  leave  the  choice  between  the  old  and  the  new 
to  each  individual  grower  according  to  his  particular 
circumstances  and  surroundings,  and  possibly  personal 
notions  and  preferences. 

My  own  soil  is  not  particularly  suited  to  the  ordi- 
nary onion  crop.  Try  as  I  may,  I  am  unable  to  grow 
a  respectable  crop  of  Yellow  Danvers  or  Southport 
Globes,  the  leading  varieties  of  that  class,  in  the  old 
way.  The  yield,  200  or  250  bushels  per  acre,  is  below 
the  profit  limit.  For  this  reason  I  had  to  devise  or 
adapt  a  system  of  my  own  to  make  onion  growing 
profitable.  I  found  it  in  the  new  onion  culture. 

Its  chief  purpose  is  to  enable  me  to  grow  very 
large  specimens,  and  a  very  large  yield,  of  the  very 
mild  onions  of  the  sweet  Spanish  type.  Americans 
may  not  think  much  of  the  Spaniards,  as  a  nation ;  but 
they  like  the  mild  flavor  of  their  onions.  Hundreds  of 
thousands  of  bushels  of  onions  are  annually  imported 
into  the  United  States  from  Bermuda  (the  old  crop 
during  January),  from  Cuba  (new  crop  during  Febru- 
ary), from  France  and  Spain  (during  February, 
March,  and  up  to  midsummer).  Various  portions  of 
our  country  have  the  right  climate  and  soil  to  raise 


PREFACE  XV11 

just  as  good  onions  as  any  coming  from  foreign 
countries. 

The  retail  customers  of  our  grocery  stores  are 
asked  to  pay  five,  six  or  seven  cents  a  pound  for  the 
imported  "Spanish"  onion.  During  summer,  fall  and 
part  or  all  of  the  winter,  the  home-grown  "Spanish," 
Gibraltar  and  Prizetaker,  onions  can  be  sold  by  grocers 
at  a  profit  at  three  cents  a  pound,  and  allow  one  dollar 
a  bushel  for  the  grower.  I  can  see  no  sense,  on  the 
part  of  the  retail  buyer,  in  paying  the  price  asked  for 
the  imported  article,  or  of  importing  the  real  Spanish 
onions  and  offering  them  for  sale,  while  the  home- 
grown "Spanish"  onion,  which  is  in  every  way  the  equal 
of  the  other,  can  be  had.  I  would  like  to  see  the 
imported  bulb  crowded  out  of  our  markets,  at  least  to 
some  extent.  It  can  be  done  by  making  use  of  "the  ne.w 
onion  culture/'  and  of  the  fine  varieties  of  onions  of 
the  Spanish  type  which  we  now  possess  in  the  Prize- 
taker  and  Gibraltar. 

The  only  problem  which  remains  for  us  to  solve  is 
that  of  keeping  the  large  sweet  bulbs  of  this  class  until 
spring  or  early  summer,  whether  this  be  done  by  means 
of  putting  in  cold  storage,  or  of  exposing  to  the  fumes 
of  burning  sulphur,  or  in  other  ways,  at  which  times 
they  would  find  ready  sale  at  possibly  twice  the  prices 
obtainable  for  them  in  the  fall. 

The  new  plan  of  onion  growing  can  be  justly  and 
earnestly  recommended  for  four  special  purposes,  viz: 

1.  For  the  production  of  a  full  home  supply  of 
the  very  finest  and  largest  onions;  and,  especially  to 
the  novice,  as  the  very  easiest  way  of  securing  most 
desirable  results. 

2.  For  growing  exhibition  onions  that  will  be 
sure  to  take  the  prizes  at  any  fair  in  competition  with 
onions  grown  in  the  ordinary  way. 


Xvill  PREFACE 

3.  For  market  gardeners  who  deal  directly  with 
retail  customers  and  can  work  off  a  lot  of  really  choice 
sweet  onions  in  smaller  quantities  at  high  prices  with 
their  other  crops. 

4.  As  a  means  to  interest  your  boy  or  boys  in 
gardening  operations  and  making  them  enthusiasts  in 
the  business. 

Try  the  new  onion  culture  on  any  of  these  lines. 
If  you  do  your  part  only  reasonably  well,  your  highest 
success  will  be  assured. 

T.  GREINER. 
La  Salle,  N  Y,  1903. 


THE  WHYS  AND  WHEREFORES 


A    SORT    OF    INTRODUCTION 

"If  I  were  a  tailor,  I'd  made  it  my  pride 

The  best  of  all  tailors  to  be; 
If  I  were  a  tinker,  no  tinker  beside 
Should  mend  a  tin  kettle  like  me." 

Who  has  never  met  the  "Jack-of-all-trades" — 
knowing  a  little  of  all,  and  being  proficient  in  none — 
a  clever  sort  of  person,  and  handy  to  have  around  as 
a  "general  utility"  man,  but  never  rising  above  the  level 
of  mediocrity  in  anything,  or  able  to  aspire  to  great 
things,  or  to  command  large  pay !  The  man  who 
excels,  even  in  a  seemingly  unimportant  specialty,  is 
the  one  who  will  achieve  a  brilliant  success,  and  get 
big  pay  for  his  work. 

Some  of  my  readers  undoubtedly  have  heard,  or 
read,  the  old  fable  of  the  fox  and  the  cat.  The  story, 
like  other  fables,  has  a  moral,  and  is  worth  repeating. 
The  two  animals  met  in  the  woods,  when  the  voices 
of  hounds  were  heard  in  the  distance. 

"Poor  pussy,"  said  the  fox,  "what  will  you  do 
when  the  dogs  get  after  you  ?" 

"I  know  a  trick,"  replied  the  cat,  "and  am  not 
alarmed." 

The  hounds,  in  the  meantime,  had  come  pretty 
close,  and  conversation  was  brought  to  a  stop.  The 

xix 


XX  THE  WHYS    AND    WHEREFORES 

fox  sped  through  woods,  and  fields,  and  meadows, 
playing  one  trick  after  another,  in  the  vain  attempt  to 
throw  the  hounds  off  the  scent.  The  pursuers 
remained  on  his  track,  and  finally  overtook  and 
grabbed  him. 

In  his  dying  moments  he  looked  up  and  saw  the 
cat  in  the  top  of  a  tree,  safe  from  harm.  "Your  one 
trick  is  worth  more  than  my  whole  bagful,"  sighed  he, 
and  expired. 

Many  farmers  are  situated  pretty  much  like  the 
fox  in  the  fable.  They  have  a  whole  bagful  of  tricks 
by  which  they  hope  to  escape  the  usurer  and  the 
sheriff.  They  raise  a  little  wheat,  and  a  little  oats,  a 
few  potatoes,  a  little  hops,  some  berries,  a  few  hogs,  or 
a  cow,  a  horse,  etc,  things  which  often  cost  them  one 
dollar  and  a  quarter  for  every  dollar  they  get  for  them. 
They  try  one  trick  after  another,  or  two  or  three  at  a 
time,  changing  from  one  thing  to  another;  and  the 
harder  they  try,  the  harder  they  find  themselves 
pressed,  and  at  last — pity  'tis,  'tis  true — in  only  too 
many  cases  they  meet  a  fate  somewhat  like  the  fox's. 

The  whole  bagful  of  ordinary  tricks  does  not  save 
them ;  but  the  one  special  cat's  trick  of  climbing  up  to 
the  top  of  the  tree  or  ladder  will  never  fail  to  give  a 
way  of  escape.  To  rise  above  the  heads  of  the  crowd — 
that  is  the  trick  worth  knowing.  Learn  the  one  trick 
well,  and  you'll  be  safe. 

What  I  wish  to  do  in  this  little  work,  is  to  tell  of  a 
genuine  cat's  trick  which  I  have  recently  discovered — 
the  trick  of  climbing  up  to  the  top  in  onion  culture. 
To  grow  larger  and  better  bulbs,  and  more  bushels  on  a 
given  area,  than  anybody  else,  has  always  been  my  aim 
as  an  onion  grower.  Yet  it  would  be  a  rash  move  for 
me  to  defy  the  competition  of  growers  anywhere  who 
have  learned  and  adopted  my  methods.  This  is  a  case 


THE    WHYS    AND     WHEREFORES  XXI 

where   the   scholar   may   easily   get   bigger   than   his 
teacher. 

The  new  trick  or  "secret"  in  onion  growing  elimi- 
nates almost  every  element  of  uncertainty  from  the 
whole  business,  and  gives  to  even  the  novice  such  ad- 
vantages that  experienced  growers,  and  may  they  live 
in  the  favored  climate  of  California,  would  not  stand 
the  ghost  of  a  chance  in  competition  against  him  for 
the  best  crop,  so  long  as  they  practice  only  the  ordinary 
old  method. 

It's  mere  child's  play  for  me,  or  anybody  that  fol- 
lows my  new  plan,  to  grow  twice  as  many  onions  on  an 
acre  as  professional  growers  do  under  the  old  method, 
and  to  send  bulbs  to  market  over  which  the  commis- 
sion merchants,  and  the  storekeepers,  and  consumers 
themselves,  can  grow  enthusiastic;  bulbs,  too,  which 
are  readily  selling  for  seventy-five  cents  a  bushel,  when 
ordinary  onions  bring  fifty  cents. 

If  I  had  been  shrewd  enough  to  keep  the  matter 
to  myself,  and  work  it  for  all  it  is  worth,  I  might  make 
a  nice  round  sum  of  money  by  a  discretion  which,  as 
usual,  is  the  better  part  of  valor.  But  it  isn't  my 
nature.  I  have  to  give  the  whole  thing  away,  and 
teach  my  would-be  competitors  the  ways  in  which  they, 
if  their  soil  conditions  are  more  favorable  than  mine, 
can  easily  beat  me.  So  I  shall  at  least  not  be  open  to 
the  charge  of  taking  an  unfair  advantage  over  them. 
But,  if  I  cannot  be  the  best  of  all  growers,  I  will  at 
least  try 

***** 

The  best  of  all  teachers  to  be. 

• 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  some  of  the  readers  to 
learn  the  history  of  the  new  onion  culture.  It  was  in 
1888  when  a  new  variety  of  the  large  "Spanish"  type  of 


XX11  THE    WHYS    AND    WHEREFORES 

onions  was  introduced  under  the  name  of  "Prizetaker." 
At  that  time  I  had  the  advantage  of  the  use  of  as  fine 
onion  land  as  the  sun  ever  shone  upon,  a  fairly  fertile 
soil  in  Monmouth  county,  New  Jersey.  I  always 
made  it  a  practice  to  test  all  promising  novelties.  The 
Prizetaker  onion  was  one  of  them.  It  was  one  of  the 
comparatively  few  novelties  which  have  lasting  value. 
It  was  above  all  others  the  one  which  made  the  testing 
of  novelties  so  profitable.  I  could  better  have  afforded 
to  pay  $500  or  even  $1000  for  this  test  of  the  Prize- 
taker  onion,  than  miss  the  chance  to  invent  "the  new 
onion  culture."  This  is  mentioned,  to  prove,  en 
passant,  the  practical  value  of  novelty  tests  in  general. 
In  short,  even  the  first  test  of  the  Prizetaker  onion, 
although  grown  in  the  old  way,  by  sowing  seed  in 
open  ground  in  early  spring,  resulted  eminently  satis- 
factorily. In  the  fall  of  that  year  I  had  the  prettiest, 
most  perfect  onions,  of  reasonably  large  size,  imag- 
inable, and  I  became  so  enthusiastic  over  this  novelty, 
that  I  then  described  the  new  variety  in  agricultural 
papers  as  "the  king  of  all  onions.*' 

Even  the  next  year,  in  1889,  seed  could  only  be 
obtained  in  very  small  quantities,  and  this  at  high 
prices.  In  order  to  make  every  seed  count,  and  know- 
ing how  easily  onions  can  be  transplanted,  I  sowed  the 
seed  in  hotbed  in  March,  and  transplanted  to  open 
ground  early  in  May. 

The  results  were  again  so  gratifying,  the  bulbs  so 
large  and  attractive,  and  their  quality  so  much  admired 
by  all  who  had  a  chance  to  test  them,  that  acquaintances 
and  neighbors  were  infected  with  my  enthusiasm  about 
the  new  onion  and  the  new  way  of  growing  it.  Among 
them  was  a  la.d  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  summers,  with  the 
same  yearning  for  pocket  money  which  we  expect  to 
be  the  natural  inheritance  of  all  other  boys.  The  ap- 
parent ease  with  which  these  large  and  salable  bulbs 


THE     WHYS    AND     WHEREFORES  XX111 

were  produced,  appealed  with  tempting  and  irresist- 
ible force  to  the  lad's  mind.  Finally  he  came  to  me 
with  a  proposition.  He  must  try  to  grow  a  larger 
patch  for  himself. 

There  is  no  surer  way  to  interest  a  boy  in  a  certain 
task,  and  start  him  in  the  right  way  and  in  the  habit  of 
doing  good  work,  than  by  letting  him  know  he  is  to 
receive  a  share,  or  possibly  the  whole  of  the  proceeds 
from  his  own  efforts.  There  is  nothing  that  will  dis- 
courage a  boy  more  quickly  than  lack  of  good  faith  on 
the  parent's  side.  Don't  make  it  the  boy's  calf  and 
the  father's  cow. 

A  prominent  seedsman  that  spring  offered  a  prize 
of  $50  for  the  best  crop  grown  from  one  ounce  of 
Prizetaker  seed.  That  was  an  extra  inducement,  so 
the  lad  got  the  ounce  of  seed  and  sowed  it  in  coldframe 
early  in  April,  transplanted  the  seedlings  to  open 
ground  in  May,  and  raised  a  crop  amounting  to  a 
plump  ton  of  nice  onions  which  might  have  taken  the 
prize  for  largest  yield  but  for  the  competition  by 
growers  in  California,  As  it  was,  the  chief  purpose 
was  accomplished,  namely  to  put  a  good  lot  of  pocket 
money  into  the  lad's  possession.  It  is  safe  to  promise 
similar  results  to  any  boy  for  similar  efforts. 

The  experience  of  these  three  seasons  had  now 
firmly  and  permanently  established  the  practice  of 
growing  the  onions  of  the  Spanish  type  by  the  new  or 
transplanting  method.  It  now  only  remained  to  im- 
prove and  systematize  this  new  way,  and  to  bring  it 
before  the  public  for  more  or  less  general  adoption. 
The  first  edition  of  The  New  Onion  Culture  came  out 
in  the  spring  of  1891,  and  made  considerable  stir 
among  American  gardeners.  Ever  since  that  time  my 
efforts  for  the  further  improvement  and  simplification 
of  the  new  method  have  been  continued,  apparently 
with  good  success.  The  pages  of  the  little  book  now 


XXIV  THE    WHYS    AND    WHEREFORES 

before  the  reader,  which  is  an  entirely  new  work,  give 
evidence  of  the  progress  that  has  been  made,  and  con- 
tain all  the  information  about  the  new  plan  now 
available. 

I  claim  some  credit  for  the  discovery  of  this  novel 
method.  Still  I  admit  I  am  not  the  first  person  who 
transplants  onions.  On  a  small  scale,  specimens  have 
been  grown  in  England  in  a  similar  way  for  exhibition ; 
various  growers  have  for  generations  employed  the 
transplanting  process  for  filling  out  gaps  in  their  onion 
rows ;  and  others  have  practiced  a  plan  almost  identical 
with  mine  in  growing  early  onions  for  bunching.  But 
to  apply  the  principle  to  field  culture,  to  reduce  the 
crude  plan  to  a  system,  and  to  practice,  advocate  and 
teach  it  in  advance  of  all  others — that,  I  claim,  is  my 
merit. 

Professor  W.  J.  Green,  of  the  Ohio  experiment 
station,  has  worked  out  this  same  problem,  simul- 
taneously with  me,  but  entirely  independently.  Nei- 
ther of  us  knew  that  the  other  was  following  the  same 
track.  The  first,  though  brief,  description  of  the  novel 
method  appeared  in  How  to  Make  the  Garden  Pay, 
written  by  me  in  autumn,  1889,  and  published  at 
the  beginning  of  1890.  Professor  Green,  soon  after, 
gave  his  version  of  the  new  onion  culture  in  a  bulletin 
issued  by  the  Ohio  experiment  station,  and  since  then 
the  new  method  has  been  the  subject  of  innumerable 
newspaper  articles,  notices  in  bulletins  and  in  agricul- 
tural books. 

In  my  attempts  to  reach  a  maximum  crop,  I  have 
often  met  difficulties  which  many  other  growers  will 
not  have  to  face.  For  a  long  time  the  privilege  of 
selecting  ideal  conditions  of  soil  and  locality  for  my 
operations  had  been  withheld  from  me,  and  I  have 
had  to  make  the  best  of  circumstances  and  surround- 
ings in  which  I  happened  to  be  placed  by  accident  or 


THE    WHYS    AND    WHEREFORES  XXV 

otherwise.  Yet  adverse  circumstances  have  not  been 
able  to  discourage  me,  and  there  is  no  need  of  anybody 
giving  up  'in  despair  merely  because  the  conditions  at 
his  disposal  are  not  the  most  favorable.  By  discreet 
management,  one  can  do  pretty  well  even  if  things  do 
not  happen  to  be  just  as  one  would  like  to  have  them. 

It  is  perfectly  feasible,  perfectly  practicable,  to 
grow  onions  by  this  new  plan  even  on  rented  land.  Yet 
I  believe  I  would  rather  live  in  a  hut,  surrounded  by  a 
few  acres  of  land,  all  my  own,  and  be  able  to  say, 
"J'y  suis,  fy  reste"  (here  I  am  and  here  I  stay)  than 
live  in  a  rented  palace.  No  matter  how  poor  or  defect- 
ive the  land,  by  a  little  effort  here  and  there,  and  by 
little  additions  now  and  then,  the  land  can  be  brought 
up  to  the  highest  state  o'f  fertility  and  cultivation  in  a 
few  years,  and  the  humble  house  can  gradually  be 
transformed  into  an  earthly  paradise,  and  all  this  with- 
out much  actual  expense,  or  conscious  effort.  This 
course  surely  will  prove  more  gratifying  than  to  oper- 
ate on  rented  land,  to  make  improvements  from  year 
to  year,  and  after  a  short  period  of  occupancy  turn  the 
whole  over  to  somebody  else,  and  let  others  enjoy  the 
benefits  from  the  former  occupants'  labors  and  pains- 
taking. But  in  whatever  situation  in  this  respect  you 
may  find  yourself,  do  as  I  always  have  tried  to  do, 
namely,  make  the  most  of  your  opportunities. 

Have  I  any  doubt  that  Prizetaker  and  Gibraltar 
onions  may  be  grown  in  this  way  by  one,  two,  three  or 
four  acres  with  a  profit?  No,  not  the  least.  But  this 
book  is  not  written  for  the  purpose  of  getting  the 
reader  wild  on  the  subject,  and  into  trouble.  -It  is 
written  primarily  for  the  purpose  of  inducing  you  to 
make  some  careful  trials  of  the  new  onion  culture, 
operating  at  first  on  a  small  fraction  of  an  acre  of  care- 
fully selectee  land,  to  enable  you  to  learn  not  only  how 
to  grow  the  onions,  but  also  how  to  exchange  them  for 


XXVI  THE    WHYS    AND    WHEREFORES 

cash  after  they  are  grown.  Then  my  responsibility 
ceases.  If  you  then  conclude  to  grow  these  onions  by 
the  acre  or  acres,  you  do  it  at  your  own  risk  and  pre- 
sumably with  full  knowledge  of  what  you  are  doing. 

I  had  still  another  object  in  view  in  writing  this 
onion  story.  What  was  done  by  the  lad  already  men- 
tioned, in  this  case,  can  be  done  by  any  wide-awake 
youngster  of  ordinary  intelligence.  The  new  onion 
culture  points  out  or  opens  an  easy  way  to  him  of  earn- 
ing a  little  pocket  money  of  his  own,  and  of  growing 
a  crop  of  which  he  may  be  proud,  and  which  will  take 
the  prize  at  horticultural  fairs,  securing  a  little  addi- 
tional reward,  notwithstanding  the  competition  of  the 
old  experienced  onion  grower  who  works  only  on  the 
old  plan. 

And  what  a  chance  for  horticultural  schooling  and 
training  this  affords  besides!  Can  there  be  a  better 
opportunity  for  awakening  your  boy's  interest  in  horti- 
cultural matters  and  making  him  study  up  horticultural 
problems  for  himself,  than  by  putting  a  copy  of  this 
book,  and  an  ounce  or  two  of  Prizetaker  or  Gibraltar 
onion  seed  into  his  hands,  and  a  few  square  rods  of 
good  land  at  his  disposal  for  a  start,  and  then  tell  him : 

"Go  ahead  and  see  what  you  can  do." 


THE    NEW 

ONION  CULTURE 

CHAPTER     I 
Well   Begun— Half    Done 

HOW     THE     PLANTS     ARE      GROWN 

Our  aim  always  is  and  must  be  for  a  prize  crop — 
for  specimens  so  large  and  fine  that  we  can  expect  the 
first  prize  at  any  fair,  and  are  sure  of  top  prices  in  any 
market.  In  this  an  early  start  is  the  chief  condition  of 
full  success.  Without  it  the  undertaking  is  not  well 
begun;  with  it,  it  is  really  more  than  half  done.  This 
includes  all  reasonable  care  in  procuring  the  needed 
supply  of  seed  in  good  time.  We  try  to  begin  sowing 
seed  just  as  soon  after  January  first  as  we  can  get  a 
spot  for  it  in  the  greenhouse  or  a  hotbed.  I  usually 
have  the  best  success  from  plants  started  along  in  Jan- 
uary or  not  later  than  early  in  February.  Yet  I  have 
grown  fine  crops  from  seed  sown  as  late  as  first  week 
in  April.  It  depends  somewhat  on  the  season,  but  the 
earlier  sowings  ordinarily  will  give  the  best  crops. 

Some  of  my  onion  growing  friends  grow  their 
own  Prizetaker  onion  seed,  which  is  not  a  particularly 
difficult  matter,  and  insures  the  possession  of  the  seed 
whenever  they  wish  to  sow  it.  I  frequently  have 
found  difficulty  in  securing  seed,  especially  of  the 


2     ,  THE  KEY:  ONION  CULTURE 

Gibraltar  onion,  early  enough  for  sowing  in  the  green- 
house when  I  most  desired  to  sow,  namely  in  January. 
Sound,  medium-sized  Prizetakers  are  easily  kept*)ver 
winter,  and  may  be  planted  out  about  September  first 
or  next  spring,  in  furrows  six  inches  deep  and  five  or 
six  inches  apart,  in  soil  of  medium  fertility  for  seed 
production.  When  most  of  the  seeds  in  a  head  are  ripe, 
the  head  is  cut  off  and  put  away  in  a  dry  and  airy  spot, 
to  dry,  and  the  seed  then  thrashed  out  auJ  properly 
cleaned. 


Fig    3 — YELLOW    PRIZETAKEl*    ONION 

When  we  depend  on  the  seedsman  for  our  supply, 
however,  the  order  must  be  given  in  good  season  so 
that  the  seeds  will  be  on  hand  when  needed.  Only  two 
varieties  come  in  consideration  with  me,  the  Yellow 
Prizetaker  (Fig  3)  and  the  Gibraltar  onions.  At  pres- 
ent there  is  little  demand  for  red  onions  of  any  kind, 
and  for  the  pink  (or  red)  Prizetaker  no  more  than  for 
Wethersfield  or  Red  Globe.  The  yellow  sorts  are  the 


HOW     THE    PLANTS    ARE     GROWN  3 

ones  that  are  wanted.     For  experiment  you  may  plant 
any  other  sort  or  sorts  that  you  care  about. 

In  a  small  way,  plants  may  be  raised  in  boxes  (so- 
called  flats)  placed  in  a  kitchen  window.  A  flat  ten  by 
eighteen  inches  will  give  plants  enough  for  a  full 
family  supply  of  fine  onions.  Such  a  box  should  be 
about  four  inches  deep,  and  be  filled  with  very  rich, 
clean  soil,  or  with  rich  compost  covered  about  an  inch 
deep  with  clean  sand.  Plants  raised  in  flat,  ready  for 
transplanting,  are  seen  in  Fig  4. 


Fig    4 — PLANTS    READY    FOR    TRANSPLANTING 

The  great  majority  of  gardeners  have  no  green- 
house facilities.  They  must  make  use  of  hotbeds.  For 
operations  during  February  or  March,  at  least  in  a 
northern  climate,  cold  frames  will  not  answer ;  nor  will 
muslin  covering.  Common  hotbed  sash  is  the  neces- 
sary thing  to  cover  hotbeds  at  this  time. 

There  are  two  ways  of  constructing  a  hotbed ;  one 
by  digging  a  pit  and  filling  this  with  a  two-foot  layer 
of  fresh  and  fermenting  horse  manure,  as  shown  in 
Fig  5 ;  another  by  piling  this  manure  layer  directly 
upon  the  ground,  a  frame  corresponding  with  the  size 
and  desired  number  of  hotbed  sashes  to  be  placed  in 


4  THE     NEW    ONION     CULTURE 

either  case  upon  the  manure,  and  then  filled  with  pre- 
pared "hotbed"  soil,  as  shown  in  Fig  6. 

It  is  only  for  a  southern  location,  or  for  very  late 
planting  at  the  North,  that  an  ordinary  cold  frame 
may  be  made  to  answer.  This  is  a  simple  box  of 
boards  or  planks,  slanting  from  the  rear,  where  it  is 
about  twelve  inches  high,  to  front,  where  it  is  only  six 
to  eight  inches  high.  This  box  is  set  directly  upon  the 
ground  in  some  well-drained  and  well-protected  sunny 
spot,  facing  south  or  southeast.  It  is  then  filled  with 


^Vv-^'^^S^Ci^  •?.-  <r5JS^« :  ^fc.'>;  -TK^x ^ 


Fig    5 — HOTBED    IN    SUNKEN    PIT 

a  mixture  of  good  turfy  loam,  sand,  and  a  little  fine 
old  compost  to  about  four  inches  from  the  top.  Ordi- 
nary rich  garden  soil,  freed  from  stones  and  rubbish 
by  sifting,  and  further  enriched  with  fine  old  compost, 
well  mixed  and  sifted  together,  will  also  answer  every 
purpose.  The  surface  is  made  fine  and  smooth  with  a 
steel  rake,  and  marked  off  with  straight  furrows  from 
front  to  rear.  They  are  easily  drawn  across  with  the 
handle  of  the  rake,  or  with  a  little  stick,  or  even  the 
finger,  and  should  be  about  an  inch  deep,  and  about 
one  and  a  half  inches  apart,  or  as  close  as  they  can  be 
made  conveniently. 


HOTBEDS  5 

I  sow  about  one  and  a  half  ounces  of  seed  on  the 
space  covered  by  a  single  sash  frame,  which  is  usually 
three  feet  by  six  or  nearly  that,  and  expect  from  it 
from  5000  to  8000  plants.  To  grow  the  120,000  plants 
required  for  a  one-acre  patch  would  therefore  call  for 
the  use  of  a  frame  of  not  less  than  nearly  twenty 
sashes. 

The  seed  is  to  be  evenly  scattered  into  the  furrows, 
and  the  latter  carefully  filled  in  again  with  the  hand. 
The  soil  is  then  well  firmed  by  pressing  a  piece  of 
board  or  block  of  wood  down  upon  it.  The  sash  or 
sashes  are  then  put  on,  and  the  bed  left  pretty  much 


Fig    6 — HOTBED    ON    LEVEL    GROUND 

to  itself,  except  giving  air  on  fine  days,  and  an  occa- 
sional thorough  watering  when  the  soil  seems  to 
become  very  dry.  In  eight  weeks,  more  or  less,  the 
plants  will  be  ready  for  transfer  to  open  ground. 

Personally,  I  am  getting  to  be  more  and  more  in 
favor  of  greenhouses  for  growing  plants  of  any  kind, 
and  of  onion  plants  in  particular.  We  have  to  start 
onion  plants  early — earlier,  really,  than  it  is  conven- 
ient to  make  and  operate  hotbeds,  unless  the  latter  are 
heated  by  an  ordinary  flue,  or,  still  better,  by  the 
waste  steam  of  factories. 

A  so-called  fire  hotbed  (one  heated  by  a  flue)  is  a 
rather  simple  affair,  and  easily  and  cheaply  put  up 


O  THE    NEW    ONION     CULTURE 

when  you  have  the  needed  sashes  at  command.  Select 
a  well-drained  and  well-protected  spot  for  the  bed. 
If  possible,  it  should  slightly  slope  to  north  or  south. 
Dig  a  pit  at  lowest  end  for  a  simple  furnace,  and  with 
a  few  firebrick,  some  grate  bars,  and  an  iron  door, 
build  a  fireplace.  The  flue  should  run  under,  the  center 
of  the  bed,  ending  in  a  chimney  at  the  upper  end. 
The  hotbed  itself  is  a  simple  frame,  with  a  scantling 
as  a  ridgepole,  say  two  feet  above  the  ground,  and  a 
line  of  ten  or  twelve-inch  plank  on  each  side.  The  two 
rows  of  sashes,  resting  on  light  rafters,  and  meeting 
over  the  ridgepole,  form  a  kind  of  a  gable  roof  over 
the  bed. 

This  arrangement,  of  course,  is  simply  a  modified 
hotbed.  The  operator  has  to  get  at  his  work  in  open 
air,  by  raising  or  removing  sashes,  as  in  ordinary  hot- 
beds. Still  he  has  this  advantage,  that  he  can  control 
the  bottom  heat.  Whenever  he  gets  ready,  and  no 
matter  how  hard  the  ground  may  be  frozen,  he  can 
start  up  his  fire,  and  soon  get  the  bed  in  shape  for 
planting.  If  you  have  an  opportunity  to  use  waste 
steam,  you  should  consider  yourself  especially  for- 
tunate. You  may  be  able  to  conduct  it  into  lines  of 
two-inch  tiles  laid  right  under  the  frames,  and  thus 
secure  a  reliable  and  controllable  medium  of  heating 
your  plant  beds  at  smallest  expense.  It  is  a  chance 
too  good  to  be  neglected. 

But  there  is  nothing  to  hinder  you  from  utilizing 
this  same  waste  steam  in  greenhouse  heating;  and  if 
you  have  the  sashes  anyway,  you  can  put  one  up  quite 
cheaply.  In  the  absence  of  waste  steam,  a  simple  flue 
might  be  made  to  answer.  The  illustration  will  give 
you  an  idea  of  the  construction  of  building.  Put  up  a 
simple  frame,  three-quarters  span,  and  board  up  at 
the  sides  and  back.  Better  have  these  walls  double, 
and  well  lined  with  paper,  or  the  space  filled  with  dry 


FORCING     PITS  7 

sawdust.  Three  rows  of  ordinary  hotbed  sashes  form 
the  roof.  The  flue  is  situated  as  shown  in  Fig,  7,  and 
heated  from  a  fireplace  constructed  as  described  for 
the  fire  hotbed.  There  is  no  need  of  going  further 
into  the  details.  I  will  only  call  attention  t©  some  of 
the  advantages  of  this  plan. 

In  the  first  place,  there  is  next  to  no  money  outlay 
required  for  it.  The  few  boards  and  scantling  needed 
for  the  frame  can  be  found  on  almost  any  place,  or 
can  be  had  for  little  money.  Anybody  of  ordinary 
intelligence  and  mechanical  skill  can  put  up  the  frame. 


0128     1     6     «     t-     W    •    » 
Fig   7 — FORCING   PIT,    COVERED   WITH    HOTBED    SASHES 

A  few  of  the  sashes  can  be  hinged,  to  serve  for  venti- 
lation. You  can  do  all  the  work  of,  running  this  half- 
and-half  arrangement  under  shelter  and  with  comfort. 
The  flue  being  on  one  side  gives  a  chance  to  raise  all 
the  different  vegetable  plants.  The  high  bed  furthest 
back,  over  the  flue,  will  be  the  warmest.  Here  you 
can  start  tomato,  pepper  and  egg  plants,  etc,  or  use  it 
for  forcing  cucumbers,  tomatoes,  etc.  The  next  bed, 
in  the  center,  which  is  somewhat  cooler,  may  be  used 
for  tomato,  pepper,  early  cabbage  and  similar  plants 
after  they  are  well  started,  also  for  forcing  lettuce, 
radishes,  etc.  The  bed  on  the  ground  level  is  the 
coolest  and  just  right  for  growing  onion  plants. 


8 


THE     NEW     ONION     CULTURE 


A  building  of  this  kind  is  much  better  and  handier 
— and  cheaper  in  the  end,  because  more  satisfactory 
and  more  prolific  of  results — than  ordinary  hotbeds. 
If  you  are  not  afraid  to  invest  an  extra  one  hundred 
dollars  or  so,  better  put  in  a  hot  water  heater,  with  the 
necessary  pipes.  The  house  will  be  managed  with 
one-half  the  labor,  and  double  the  satisfaction. 

A  neat  little  greenhouse  well  suited  to  the  needs  of 
the  small  grower  and  amateur,  is  shown  in  Figs  8  and 
9.  It  is  a  double-span  house,  a  little  more  costly  than 
the  other,  but  extremely  convenient,  and  fit  for  raising 


Fig  8 — SMALL   GREENHOUSE — ELEVATION 

any  kind  of  vegetable  or  flower  plants,  or  forcing  any 
kind  of  ordinary  vegetable.  The  pit  for  the  heater 
is  dug  at  the  north  end  of  one  of  the  spans.  If  I 
build  another,  however,  I  should  have  only  one  span 
of  double  the  length. 

Many  other  styles  of  greenhouses  might  be  men- 
tioned. Some  growers  who  have  a  lot  of  hotbed  sash 
available  for  the  purpose  will  wish  to  put  up  a  cheap 
structure  and  utilize  their  stock  of  sashes  for  the  roof. 
A  house  of  this  kind  does  not  cost  much,  and  with  a 
little  ingenuity  and  good  management  may  be  made 
to  answer  any  purpose  of  an  onion  plant  nursery. 
It  should  be  remembered  that  onion  plants  are  quite 


SMALL     GREENHOUSES  9 

hardy.  They  are  not  injured  by  a  light  frost,  nor  by 
extremes  of  temperature  or  sudden  changes,  nor  by  a 
direct  transfer  from  greenhouse  to  open  air  conditions 
without  previous  hardening  off.  It  is  true,  however, 
that  we  can  force  more  rapid  growth  at  a  compara- 
tively high  temperature,  ranging  say  between  sixty 
and  ninety  or  more  degrees  Fahrenheit,  than  in  a 
much  lower  one. 

One  of  my  friends,  near  a  neighboring  city,  who 
has  grown  several  acres  of  Prizetakers  on  the  new 
plan  yearly  for  several  years,  has  taken  another  course 
to  secure  his  hundreds  of  thousands  of  plants.  In  his 
vicinity  lives  a  party  who  makes  a  business  of  growing 


Fig     9 — SMALL     GREENHOUSE — CROSS     SECTION 

annually  a  million  or  two  of  tomato  plants  under  con- 
tract for  some  large  canning  houses  which  supply  the 
plants  to  their  tomato  growers.  Some  of  the  green- 
houses in  which  these  plants  are  grown  usually  stand 
empty  until  nearly  the  time  that  onions  can  be  taken 
off  the  benches  and  set  in  open  ground.  A  crop  of 
onion  plants  may  here  be  produced  just  as  well  as  not, 
and  with  but  slight  additional  expense.  So  my  friend 
contracts  for  his  plants  with  these  tomato  plant  grow- 
ers with  profit  to  both  parties  in  the  transaction. 

In  my  own  little  greenhouse  I  have  for  many  years 
done  exactly  as  these  professional  plant  growers  do, 
namely,  have  grown  my  onion  plants  during  the  win- 


10  THE     NEW    ONION     CULTURE 

ter;  and  when  the  benches  were  cleared  from  them  in 
April,  filled  the  vacant  spaces  up  with  tomato,  egg  and 
pepper  plants  just  as  fast  as  there  was  a  chance.  Thus 
I  make  the  best  use  of  my  available  bench  room. 

Often  there  is  considerable  call  for  Prizetaker 
onion  plants  in  early  spring,  and  even  up  to  June. 
The  price  usually  asked  Tor  them  ranges  from  fifty 
cents  to  one  dollar  per  thousand  plants,  and  I  am  sure 
that  they  can  be  grown  at  that  figure  at  a  good  profit 
where  greenhouses  are  available,  and  possibly  stand 
idle  anywhere  during  a  part  of  that  time. 

In  growing  onion  seedlings  under  glass  I  have 
had  to  fight  only  one  single  enemy — and  that  is  the 
damping-off  fungus.  I  have  at  times  lost  a  consider- 
able portion  of  my  plants  from  this  cause.  The  stem 
appears  to  dwindle  away  near,  usually  just  below,  the 
surface  of  the  ground,  and  the  top  falls  over  and  dries 
away.  The  infection  undoubtedly  comes  from  the  soil. 
If  we  use  new  soil,  or  'any  soil  that  is  free  from  the 
fungus,  the  plants  will  remain  healthy.  Watering  the 
soil  freely  with  a  solution  of  copper  sulphate,  a  pound 
to  two  hundred  gallons  of  water,  has  seemed  to  prevent 
the  loss  of  plants  from  this  cause.  An  excessively 
high  temperature  and  a  close,  moist  atmosphere  should 
be  avoided,  and  the  surface  of  the  bed  should  never  be 
allowed  to  become  dust  dry.  To  provide  for  possible 
loss  caused  by  the  disease,  however,  I  practice  and 
advise  sowing  seed  rather  thickly  as  already  stated 
(not  less  than  one  and  one-half  ounces  to  the  space 
covered  by  an  ordinary  hotbed  sash).  It  is  better  to 
be  compelled  to  thin  plants  where  too  thick,  than  to 
have  large  vacant  spots  in  the  bed. 

It  is  possible,  however,  to  prepare  the  seed  bed  in 
such  a  'manner  that  the  fungus  is  entirely  kept  out. 
For  instance,  I  have  used  clear,  sharp  sand  brought 
fresh  from  the  bank  of  the  river,  sowed  the  seed  in 


PREPARING    THE     SEED    BED 


II 


this,  and  then  fed  the  plants  entirely  on  liquid  manure. 
I  have  a  cistern  under  one  corner  of  the  barn.  The 
rain  water  washes  a  good  deal  of  pigeon  manure  off 
the  roof  into  this  cistern.  Then  I  add  chemical  ferti- 
lizers, especially  acid  phosphate,  muriate  of  potash  and 
a  little  nitrate  of  soda  or  potash,  and  find  that  by 


Fig     IO — A    WELL-PREPARED    SEED    BED 

watering  the  onion  beds   copiously  with  this   liquid, 
I  can  force  a  very  rapid  growth  in  my  seedlings. 

Another  safe  plan  is  to  fill  the  seed  bed,  bench, 
frame  or  box  pretty  well  up  with  good  old  compost, 
or  very  rich  soil  well  pressed  down,  and  on  top  of  this 
to  place  a  layer,  an  inch  or  inch  and  a  half  deep,  of 
clear,  sharp  river  sand.  The  seed  is  sown  into  this 
sand.  The  roots  of  the  seedlings  will  soon  get  down 


12  THE     NEW     ONION     CULTURE 

into  the  rich  feeding  grounds  under  the  sand,  and 
produce  a  wonderfully  thrifty  and  healthy  growth,  as 
seen  in  Fig  10. 

A  further  advantage  of  this  method  is  that  but 
few  weeds  come  up  among  the  onion  plants.  If  weeds 
appear,  pull  them  up  by  hand.  Where  plants  stand 
overcrowded  in  the  rows,  thin,  even  severely,  where 
needed.  The  bed  will  require  frequent  and  copious 
watering.  When  the  plants  are  making  good  growth, 
during  latter  part  of  February  and  especially  in  the 
sunshiny  days  of  March,  I  give  my  onion  seedlings 
their  regular  daily  soaking. 

When  standing  as  thickly  in  the  beds  as  I  want 
them  they  are  also  sure  to  get  top-heavy  and  will  need 
repeated  and  severe  clipping.  I  usually  cut  them  back 
with  a  pair  of  common  sheep  shears,  removing  each 
time  nearly  the  full  upper  half  (in  length)  of  the 
plant.  Our  aim  is  to  get  seedlings  the  bulb  of  which, 
just  above  the  roots,  is  between  one-eighth  and  three- 
sixteenths  of  an  inch  in  diameter  (if  of  nearly  pencil 
thickness,  all  the  better) ,  and  this  by  the  time  that  the 
open  ground  is  ready  to  receive  them. 


CHAPTER    II 

As   You  Make   Your  Bed,  So    You'll  Lie 

WHAT      SOIL      TO      SELECT,      HOW      TO       MANURE      AND 
PREPARE     IT 

"What  spot  would  you  advise  me  to  select  for 
my  onion  patch?" 

The  inquirer  had  told  me  that  he  had  a  piece  of 
good  loam,  not  excessively  fertile,  'tis  true,  but  having 
been  cropped  with  carrots  and  beets  the  year  before, 
consequently  quite  clean,  and  in  fair  tilth,  and  of 
course,  well  underdrained. 

"That  is  the  exact  spot  you  want,"  said  I. 

"Why  not  plant  it  on  that  deep,  rich  muck?" 
came  the  next  query. 

"It  is  decidedly  too  loose  and  moist.  The  fine 
Gibraltars  and  Prizetakefs  might  all  take  a  notion  to 
grow  up  thick-necked — romps,  scallions,  and  worthless 
for  sale  or  keep.  By  all  means  take  loam,  sandy  pre- 
ferred, and  if  possible  with  good  natural  drainage,  but 
certainly  not  without  thorough  drainage  of  some  kind. 
Water  should  never  stand  on  the  surface  of  an  onion 
patch  even  for  a  single  day." 

On  the  whole,  however,  I  do  not  object  to  Well- 
drained,  deep,  rich  muck.  I  myself  have  grown  ex- 
cellent crops,  in  the  old  way,  on  such  soil,  and  once 
I  went  through  a  several-acre  patch  in  Mt  Morris, 
N  Y — soil  being  muck  with  a  little  sand  mixed  in, 
and  the  land  arranged  for  sub-irrigation — which  had 
an  enormous  crop  of  Yellow  Danvers  upon  it,  un- 
doubtedly more  than  1000  bushels  per  acre.  It  will 


14  THE     NEW     ONION      CULTURE 

be  hard  to  find  better  onion  soil  than  a  well-drained, 
well-subdued  sandy  muck. 

With  good  plants,  and  an  early  start,  I  would  not 
hesitate  to  set  Prizetakers  or  Gibraltars  on  such  well- 
drained  muck  land.  Small,  poorly-grown  plants,  set 
late  in  the  season  on  moist  muck  soil  that  is  exces- 
sively rich  in  nitrogen  and  less  abundantly  supplied 
with  mineral  plant  foods,  are  liable,  especially  in  a 
wet  season,  to  give  you  thick-necked,  worthless  onions, 
and  plants  rather  than  bulbs.  Sand  and  sandy  loam, 
however,  favor  this  undesirable  development  much  less 
than  other  soils. 


Fig    II — A    PERFECT    CROP    OF    GIBRALTAR    ONIONS 

I  wish  to  call  especial  attention  to  this  fact,  that 
wherever  plants  of  nearly  pencil  thickness  were  set 
reasonably  early  in  the  season,  the  onions  were  large, 
uniform  and  fine,  without  break  in  the  row,  and  the 
yield  at  a  high  acre  rate.  One  of  the  finest  crops  of 
perfect  bulbs — of  Gibraltars,  Yellow  and  Pink  Prize- 
takers — that  I  ever  grew,  I  secured  last  year  on  a  clay 
loam  of  only  fair  fertility,  but  having  good  drainage. 
The  season  was  excessively  wet,  especially  in  its  earlier 
part,  and  reports  received  by  me  showed  that  many 
patches  of  onions  of  this  type,  all  over  the  country, 
produced  little  else  but  scallions.  My  patch  had  re- 
ceived only  a  light  dressing  of  old  stable  manure,  but 
a  good  dose  of  muriate  of  potash  and  acid  phosphate, 


WHAT     SOIL     TO     SELECT  15 

at  the  rate  of  several  hundred  pounds  each  per  acre, 
applied  broadcast  just  before  the  last  harrowing.  Such 
an  application  seems  always  safe,  in  fact  safer  than 
the  use  of  excessive  quantities  of  organic  and  nitrog- 
enous manures,  except  on  sandy  soils. 

Stimulated  by  the  continuous  and  excessive  rain- 
fall of  the  earlier  part  of  the  season,  the  onion  plants 
showed  some  tendency  to  produce  thick  necks,  and  a 
continuation  of  these  abnormal  conditions  might  have 
spoiled  the  patch.  But  the  rains  finally  ceased,  recur- 
ring only  at  reasonable  intervals  and  just  sufficiently 


ROW    OF    SCALLIONS 


to  provide  a  fair  supply  of  moisture  'for  healthy 
growth.  The  outcome  was  a  crop  of  onions  which  as 
an  average  appeared  as  seen  in  Fig  n  in  comparison 
with  scallions,  Fig  12,  the  single  specimens  weighing 
from  three-fourths  to  one  and  one-half  pounds  apiece. 
The  soil  must  be  free  from  stones  and  coarse 
gravel,  and  rubbish  of  any  kind,  and  as  near  as  pos- 
sible, also,  from  weed  seeds.  A  new  clover  sod  that 
will  pulverize  nicely  will  do  first  rate;  but  if  the  sod 
is  old  and  tough,  it  would  hardly  be  suitable  for  our 
purpose  shortly  after  being  broken.  A  crop  of  pota- 
toes, corn,  beets,  carrots,  cabbages,  etc,  will  get  such  a 
sod  land  in  admirable  shape  for  a  succeeding  crop 
of  onions. 


l6  THE      NEW      ONION      CULTURE 

Whatever  the  soil,  and  in  whatever  condition,  the 
leavings  of  the  preceding  crop,  coarse  weed  stalks, 
etc,  should  be  removed  with  great  care  before  the  plow 
is  struck  in.  All  such  rubbish  interferes  in  a  very 
inconvenient  manner  with  after-cultivation,  and  any 
neglect  in  the  proper  preparation  of  the  soil  will  be 
greatly  regretted  later  in  the  season. 

This  disposes  of  the  problem  what  soil  to  select 
for  the  onion  crop.  Now  what  about  manure?  Some 
suggestions  have  already  been  given.  I  have  usually 
recommended  greatest  liberality  in  the  use  of  all  sorts 
of  manurial  substances. 


-  tiP  9 


Fig     13 — ONIONS     IN     THE     NEW     STRAWBERRY     BED 

"Put  it  on  thick"  is  still  my  advice  when  we  have 
plenty  of  any  kind  of  good  compost  that  is  reasonably 
free  from  weed  seeds,  and  the  soil  is  of  a  rather  sandy 
nature.  But  if  the  latter  is  strong  loam  and  very  rich 
already,  or  a  loose  rich  muck,  I  feel  that  light  dress- 
ings of  organic  manures  will  do  well  enough,  and  may 
be  safer,  the  larger  proportion  of  the  plant  foods  to  be 
given  in  the  form  of  standard  chemicals,  especially 
plain  superphosphate  (such  as  dissolved  South  Carolina 
rock)  and  muriate  of  potash,  up  to  500  pounds  per 
acre  of  the  former  and  200  or  250  pounds  of  the  latter, 
and  an  occasional  light  dressing,  say  TOO  pounds,  of 
nitrate  of  soda  if  the  plants  seem  to  need  it,  that  is, 


WHAT     MANURE     TO     USE  I/ 

if  they  fail  to  make  a  thrifty  succulent  growth.  These 
applications  of  chemical  manures,  especially  phosphate 
and  potash,  I  believe  are  always  safe  and  will  seldom 
fail  to  show  good  results.  Yet  I  do  not  wish  to  be 
understood  as  asserting  that  good  onion  crops  cannot 
be  grown  without  them.  I  have  seen  and  grown  ex- 
cellent crops  of  fine  solid  bulbs  on  good  soil  manured 
only  with  common  barnyard  or  stockyard  manure. 

All  sorts  of  domestic  manures  come  acceptable  for 
onion    growing — horse    manure,    cow    manure,    hog 


Fig     14 — DISK     HARROW    OR    PULVERIZER 

manure,  sheep  manure,  poultry  manure — or  all  sorts 
of  mixtures  and  composts,  the  finer  the  better.  Poultry 
manure  is  most  excellent  for  onions,  and  there  is  no 
need  of  being  afraid  of  it.  My  way  of  managing  it  is 
to  scatter  some  dry  soil,  muck  or  sifted  coal  ashes 
under  the  perches  from  time  to  time.  Thus  I  obtain 
a  fine,  dry,  rich  compost,  and  I  would  not  hesitate  to 
put  this  inch-deep  all  over  the  ground  if  I  could  only 
get  enough  of  it  for  such  a  dressing.  It  brings  the 
onions  every  time.  I  usually  apply  it  after  the  ground 
is  plowed  in  spring,  mixing  it  with  the  surface  soil  by 
thorough  harrowing. 

Besides  these  manures  I  would  use  everything  else 


l8  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

I  could  get  hold  of  in  the  shape  of  fertilizing1  ma- 
terials, such  as  wood  ashes,  leached  and  unleached, 
etc;  but  I  should  not  use  raw  manure,  and  none  not 
reasonably  free  from  weed  seeds,  as  I  have  already 
stated. 

For  house  use,  and  especially  to  secure  a  supply  of 
fine  bulbs  for  the  table  during  midsummer,  I  have 
sometimes  planted  a  lot  of  onion  seedlings  in  the  new 
strawberry  patch,  in  the  manner  illustrated  in  Fig-  13. 

I  usually  plant  my  strawberries  rather  farther 
apart  than  most  people.  I  lay  off  the  rows  four  feet 
apart,  and  set  the  plants  three  feet  apart,  and  for  such 


Fig     IS — ACME    HARROW 

inveterate  plant-makers  at  Michel's  Early  perhaps 
even  four  feet  apart  in  the  rows.  This  leaves  plenty 
of  vacant  space  between  the  plants,  which  may  be 
utilized  to  good  advantage  by  setting  half  a  dozen  or  a 
dozen  of  onion  plants  between  each  two  strawberry 
plants  in  the  row.  Of  course  these  onion  plants  are 
pulled  up  early,  sometimes  even  for  green  onions,  and 
in  most  cases  before  the  tops  have  entirely  died  down, 
so  as  to  make  room  for  the  strawberry  runners,  which 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  season  try  to  occupy  the  entire 
space  in  the  rows.  But  I  have  grown  as  large  and 
solid  onions  in  this  manner,  and  this  without  extra 
fussing  and  with  less  painstaking  than  in  the  regular 
onion  patch. 


IIOVV     TO    FIT    THE     LAND  IQ 

HOW    TO    FIT   THE    LAND    FOR    THE    ONION    CROP 

If  at  all  practicable,  I  invariably  try  to  plow  the 
land  deeply  and  thoroughly  during1  the  fall  previous, 
leaving  it  in  the  rough  and  exposed  to  the  benevolent 
action  of  the  weather,  especially  repeated  freezing  and 
thawing.  Fine  manure  in  the  desired  quantity  may 
be  applied  any  time  during  the  winter  or  early  spring 
directly  upon  the  plowed  surface,  or  upon  the  snow 
covering  it. 

While  spring  plowing  may  not  be  required  on 
mucky  or  loose  loamy  soils,  I  would  not  omit  it  if  the 
soil  is  packed  hard  by  winter  rains  and  snows,  or  if 


Fig     l6 — MEEKER     SMOOTHING     HARROW 

the  manure  applied  is  in  the  least  coarse.  Manure  that 
will  not  work  up  perfectly  fine,  and  mixed  with  the 
soil  will  not  make  a  perfect  seed  bed,  should  be 
plowed  under. 

On  our  own  soils  we  have  to  use  the  disk  har- 
row or  pulverizer  (Fig  14)  in  order  to  get  the  land  in 
best  condition.  This  cuts  deep  and  works  the  ground 
over  very  thoroughly.  I  prefer  to  use  this  first,  then 
follow  with  the  Acme  (Fig  15),  which  smooths  the 
surface  that  the  disk  has  left  somewhat  ridged.  In 
the  absence  of  an  Acme,  a  common  smoothing  harrow 
or  drag  will  do  very  well.  Should  neither  disk;  nor 
Acme  be  at  command,  I  would  use  a  narrow-bladed 
cultivator,  such  as  the  Planet  Jr  or  Iron  Age  horse 
hoe,  or  a  spike-tooth  cultivator,  stirring  up  the  whole 


20  THE     NEW     ONION     CULTURE 

surface,  and  thus  mixing  the  compost  with  the  soil  in 
a  thorough  manner. 

The  rich,  fine  sandy  loams,  or  soils  which,  like 
sandy  muck,  contain  a  large  amount  of  organic  matter 
cr  humus,  will  not  usually  need  so  much  manipulation. 
The  free  use  of  an  ordinary  "drag"  or  smoothing 
harrow  after  plowing  will  be  all  that  is  required  to 
get  the  surface  reasonably  smooth  and  fine.  Chemical 
manures,  if  to  be  used,  may  now  be  applied  broadcast 
or  with  a  drill.  Nitrate  of  soda  only  is  to  be  with- 
held for  a  while  and  for  application  later  on. 

To  put  the  finishing  touches  on  the  land,  I  inva- 
riably use  the  Meeker  smoothing  harrow  (Fig  16). 
In  fact,  I  would  hardly  know  how  to  get  along  without 
it.  This  makes  the  surface  about  as  even  as  could  be 
done  by  hand  raking,  and  in  one-tenth  or  one-twentieth 
the  work  or  time  required  for  the  latter  operation. 
The  Meeker  harrow  costs  twenty  dollars  or  more,  but 
it  is  a  great  labor  saver,  and  almost  indispensable  in 
the  market  or  farm  garden.  The  ordinary  steel  rake, 
however,  is,  good  enough  for  smaller  patches.  What- 
ever tools  you  use,  the  surface  should  be  as  smooth  as 
a  board,  and  the  land  is  then  ready  for  planting. 


CHAPTER     III 

A    Difficulty   Easily    Overcome 

HOW    THE    PLANTS    ARE     SET     IN     THE    GROUND 

To  transplant  a  few  hundred  onion  plants  is  not  a 
formidable  task,  but  when  you  set  120,000,  covering  an 
acre,  you  have  a  big1  job  on  hand,  and  no  mistake. 
Indeed  it  is  the  work  connected  with  my  new  onion 
culture ;  all  the  rest  of  it  is  easy — mere  child's  play,  I 
might  say. 

It  takes  about  120,000  plants  to  set  an  acre  of 
onions.  I  can  get  boys,  that,  with  some  practice,  will 
set  2000  to  3000  plants  a  day,  and  nimble-fingered  per- 
sons, used  to  garden  work,  will  easily  set  4000  or  5000. 
The  job  of  planting  an  acre  is  therefore  equivalent  to 
probably  not  less  than  twenty-five  days'  work,  and  in 
some  cases  this  estimate  may  be  considerably  exceeded ; 
but  the  amount  of  thirty  dollars  should  certainly  be 
enough  to  pay  for  the  whole  job,  when  we  pay  boys 
fifty  cents,  and  more  experienced  persons  one  dollar  or 
one  dollar  and  a  quarter  for  a  good  day's  work. 

Transplanting  so  many  onions  may  be  a  costly 
operation,  but  it  relieves  us  of  much,  if  not  all,  hand 
weeding,  and  entirely  of  the  job  of  thinning.  Old 
onion  growers  know  something  about  the  tediousness 
and  costliness  of  these  operations.  The  saving,  in 
these  respects,  more  than  pays  for  the  labor  of  trans- 
planting. 

"How  far  apart  shall  I  set  the  plants?"  That  is 
the  next  thing  the  novice  wants  to  know.  I  have  for 
years  made  the  rows  an  even  foot  apart,  and  crowded 


22  THE     NEW    ONION     CULTURE 

the  plants  as  much  as  I  dared  to  in  the  row,  in  the 
attempt  to  secure  the  largest  possible  rate  of  yield. 
My  motto  was:  "No  use  wasting  space  and  oppor- 
tunity." But  I  got  over  that  notion.  I  find  that  I  can 
give  the  patch  better  attention,  more  thorough  and 
continued  after-culture,  if  I  make  the  rows  fourteen 
inches  apart,  and  set  Gibraltars  four  inches,  and  Prize- 
takers  not  less  than  three  inches  apart  in  the  rows. 
It  is  only  when  I  plant  onion  seedlings  to  be  pulled 
up  early  for  green  or  bunching  onions  (and  they  are 
admirable  for  that  purpose)  that  I  crowd  them  to 
two  inches  in  the  row. 


Fig    17 — OLD    STYLE    GARDEN    MARKER 

For  garden  markers,  we  have  almost  up  to  this 
time  relied  chiefly  on  homemade  affairs,  such  as  the 
one  shown  in  Fig  17.  This  has  the  one  great  disad- 
vantage of  compelling  the  operator  to  walk  backward 
or  sideways.  A  set  of  handles  might  be  attached  at 
the  rear  by  which  one  person  can  do  the  steering  while 
another  pulls  it  along  horse-fashion.  I  now  have  dis- 
carded this  implement  altogether. 

For  marking  out  the  rows  for  onions  in  smaller 
patches,  up  to  one-eighth  or  even  one-fourth  acre, 
I  commonly  use  an  Iron  Age  hand  wheel  hoe,  fitting 
it  for  that  particular  purpose  by  removing  the  side 
hoes,  and  adjusting  the  single-tooth  attachment  shown 
in  Fig  1 8.  With  this  I  can  make  lighter  or  heavier 
furrows,  by  bearing  more  or  less  heavily  on  the  han- 


MARKING     THE     ROWS  23 

dies.  It  is  especially  useful  for  loosening  up  the  soil 
in  the  furrows  when  it  has  become  somewhat  hard  or 
packed.  When  simply  marking1  out  for  setting  the 
plants,  I  take  the  regular  marking  attachment  from 
the  drill,  and  put  it  on  this  tool.  During  the  earlier 
part  of  the  season,  or  during  the  entire  period  of 
setting  onion  plants,  I  keep  one  wheel-hoe  fixed  in 
this  manner  right  along,  as  then  the  time  for  using  it 
as  a  hoe  has  not  yet  arrived,  and  the  marker  is  needed 
about  every  day. 

Gardeners  who  work  with  the  Planet  Jr  combined 
wheel-hoe  and  drill,  may  transform  it  into  a  three- 


Fig    l8 — SINGLE    TOOTH 

ATTACHMENT  Fig     IQ — THREE-TOOTH     MARKER 

tooth  marker  as  suggested  in  Fig  19.  If  properly 
made,  it  will  give  good  service.  I  suggest  still  another 
plan — simply  an  idea  of  my  own.  How  would  you 
like  a  marker  devised  on  the  principle  of  the  dress- 
maker's tracing  wheel  ?  I  believe  it  can  be  pushed  and 
managed  more  easily  than  any  other  marker  we  have 
yet  mentioned.  The  little  wheels  may  be  turned  from 
hard  wood.  The  construction  is  easy  and  so  simple 
that  it  will  be  unnecessary  to  give  details.  See  Fig  20. 
Straight  and  uniform  rows  add  largely  to  the 
attractiveness  of  the  patch,  even  if  they  were  not  of 
practical  usefulness  in  facilitating  the  work  of  culti- 
vating, and  perhaps  otherwise.  Whatever  marker  we 


24  THE      NEW      ONION      CULTURE 

use,  therefore,  we  take  the  utmost  pains  to  get  the  rows 
perfectly  straight.  When  we  start  in  right  once,  the 
rest  is  easy  enough.  Usually  I  get  the  first  row  in 
straight  line,  if  it  is  a  rather  long  one,  by  setting 
three  stakes  as  a  guide.  We  begin  straight  and  try 
to  keep  straight.  It  eases  our  conscience,  and  avoids 
offense  to  the  eye.  I  now  mark  only  one  way,  leaving 
it  to  the  eye,  to  practice,  and  to  good  judgment,  to 
maintain  the  proper  distance  between  the  plants  in 
the  row. 


Fig    2O — TRACING    WHEEL    MARKER 

How  is  the  planting  done?  In  the  first  place  it 
should  be  remembered  that  plant  setting,  like  seed 
sowing,  is  always  done  most  easily  and  most  con- 
veniently when  the  ground  is  freshly  prepared.  We 
can  then  set  nearly  or  fully  twice  as  many  plants  in 
the  same  length  of  time,  as  a  few  days  later  after 
the  ground  has  again  become  hard  or  packed  down 
by  rains. 

If  the  ground  is  freshly  prepared,  and  as  loose 
and  mellow  as  we  should  expect  it  under  the  circum- 
stances, I  prefer  to  set  the  plants  with  the  fingers 
alone,  and  without  the  use  of  a  dibber.  It  is  a  simple 


SETTING     THE    PLANTS  25 

and  quick  operation,  too,  and  for  myself,  I  could,  if 
I  wanted  to  keep  at  it,  easily  set  6000  plants  in  ten 
working  hours.  I  take  hold  of  the  plant  with  the 
lef  hand,  place  it  with  the  root  end  just  a  trifle  to  the 
right  of  the  place  where  I  wish  to  have  it  planted, 
and  then  with  the  thumb  or  index  ringer  of  the  right 
hand  press  the  bulb  or  lower  end  of  the  plant  down 
into  the  soft  earth  until  it  stands  just  where  I  want 
'it.  This  is  the  work  of  a  very  few  seconds,  and  all 


Fig    21 — SETTING    THE    PLANTS    WITH    DIBBEH 

I  have  to  do  afterward  is  to  run  the  fingers  over  the 
ground  near  the  plant  to  fill  up  the  hole  left  by  the 
manipulation,  smoothing  the  surface. 

My  plan  is  to  have  a  patch  planted  as  quickly 
as  possible  after  the  ground  has  been  put  in  shape,  and 
it  will  usually  pay  well  to  get  extra  help  to  do  it, 
rather  than  string  the  work  along  by  keeping  only  a 
small  force  at  it.  If  by  any  chance  we  have  to  quit 
and  let  the  soil  become  hard  and  packed,  I  always  try 
to  refit  it  anew  by  harrowing  and  marking,  before 
going  at  the  plant  setting  business  once  more. 

If  plants  have  to  be  set  into  hard  soil,  a  small 
dibber  will  be  needed.  This  may  be  made  of  a  piece 


26 


THE      NEW     ONION      CULTURE 


of  seasoned  hardwood,  six  inches  long",  one  inch  in 
diameter  at  large  end,  and  tapering  to  a  point  at  the 
other.  The  operation  of  setting  the  plants  with  the 
dibber  is  made  so  plain  by  the  accompanying  illustra- 
tion (Fig  21 ),  that  little  explanation  by  words  will 
be  needed.  Open  the  hole  with  the  dibber  and  insert 
the  plant  an  inch  or  so  deep.  Then  strike  the  dibber 
into  the  ground  an  inch  .or  so  back  of  the  plant,  and, 


V  V 

Fig    22 — OLD    KITCHEN    KNIFE    AS    DIBBER  Fig    23 — DIBBER 

using  the  lower  end  as  a  pivotal  point,  draw  the 
upper  end  toward  you,  thus  pressing  the  soil  firmly 
against  the  underground  part  of  the  little  plant.  This, 
of  course,  leaves  another  little  opening  a  little  back 
of  the  plant.  This  may  be  closed,  and  the  surface 
somewhat  smoothed  by  another  light  stab  or  so  with 
the  dibber,  or  a  simple  manipulation  of  the  fingers. 

A  broken  kitchen  knife  ground  to  a  point  ( see  Fig 
22),  or  a  little  flat  steel  dibber  with  handle,  such  as 
shown  in  Fig  23,  and  as  may  be  made  by  any  black- 


SETTING     THE     PLANTS 


smith  at  small  cost,  will  always  do  good  service.  In 
opening  the  hole  have  the  flat  side  of  knife  or  dibber 
facing  you.  Then  insert  the  plant  back  of  the  dibber, 
withdraw  the  latter  and  strike  in  again  back  of  the 


Fig    24 — TRIMMING    THE     PLANTS 

plant,  pressing  the  soil  against  the  roots  in  the  same 
manner  as  was  done  with  the  wooden  dibber. 

A  good  way  of  managing  the  whole  operation  is 
as  follows:  Take  up  a  lot  of  plants  from  the  seed 
bed,  which  may  be  done  by  running  the  point  of  a 
small  trowel  under  them,  and  lifting  them  out.  Care- 
fully separate  and  straighten  them  out,  Next  trim 


28  THE    NEW    ONION     CULTURE 

off  a  part  of  the  tops,  if  long  and  slender,  and  the 
ends  of  the  roots,  as  shown  in  Fig  24.  The  work  of 
setting  out  the  plants  is  more  conveniently  done,  and 
will  proceed  much  faster  when  the  plants  are  short 
and  stiff  than  when  they  are  left  encumbered  with  an 
excess  of  flimsy  growth  at  each  end.  Besides,  the 
untrimmed  plants  are  liable  to  bend  or  fall  over,  and 
be  in  the  way  of  the  wheel-hoe  and  in  danger  of  being 
torn  out;  while  the  trimmed  plants  stand  up  straight 


f 


Fig   25— WRONG    WAY  Fig    26— RIGHT    WAY 

and  stiff  from  the  very  start,  and  allow  the  use  of 
the  wheel-hoe  immediately  after  they  are  set  out. 

In  short,  I  believe  in  shortening  the  plants  at 
both  ends  very  thoroughly.  It  will  do  no  harm,  and 
may  do  some  good  to  trim  the  roots  away  to  within 
almost  a  half  inch  of  the  bulb  or  stem.  With  long 
roots  left  on,  some  of  the  boys  are  bound  to  set  the 
plants  in  the  manner  shown  in  Fig  25,  while  the  plants 
with  short  roots  are  more  likely  to  be  properly  planted 
as  shown  in  Fig  26.  The  new  roots  start  out  directly 
from  the  end  of  the  stem,  and  the  plants  with  closely 
trimmed  roots  will  usually  take  hold  of  the  ground 
more  promptly  than  those  with  all  roots  left  on. 


SETTING     THE     PLANTS 


When  the  plants  are  thus  prepared  for  setting  and 
bunched  off,  let  a  boy  take  a  basketful  of  them  and 
drop  them  in  bunches  just  ahead  of  the  planters.  Of 
course,  the  work  should  be  begun  just  as  soon  as  the 
ground  can  be  got  in  proper  shape.  The  soil  must 
be  moist  and  crumbly,  but  not  wet  or  sticky.  Begin 


Fig    27 — PLANT     SET    RIGHT     DEPTH 

with  the  plants  that  were  started  first,  or  are  largest, 
and  carry  the  job  to  completion  as  speedily  as  possible. 
The  question  is  often  asked  how  deep  onion  plants 
should  be  set.  An  onion  plant  will  live  and  make  a 
bulb  whether  you  set  it  a  half  inch  or  three  inches 
deep.  But  we  want  the  bulb  to  grow  pretty  well  out 
of  the  ground.  This  seems  to  be  the  nature  of  the 
onion  plant.  In  order  to  show  this  in  a  theoretical 


30  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

way  I  have  drawn  the  illustrations  which  picture  the 
objects  in  reduced  size.  Fig  27  shows  the  plant  set 
one  inch  deep,  the  roots  reaching  further  down,  and 
before  long  probably  finding  their  way  clear  down  to 
the  subsoil.  The  bulb  will  spread  out  to  full  size  as 
indicated  by  the  dotted  lines.  This  brings  it  just 


Fig  28 — PLANT  SET  TOO  DEEP 


where  we  want  it,  namely,  two-thirds  or  more  above 
the  surface  of  the  ground,  where  it  can  be  easily 
worked  and  harvested.  In  Fig  28  the  plant  is  shown 
as  being  set  one  and  one-half  inches  deep.  If  planted 
in'  a  dry  time,  and  in  dry  soil,  the  roots  may  find  more 
moisture  and  the  plant  revive  more  quickly  after  the 
transfer,  but  the  bulb  is  rather  too  far  down  in  the 


SETTING    THE    PLANTS  3! 

ground.    Altogether  I  believe  that  one  inch  in  depth 
is  just  about  right. 

Efforts  have  been  made  by  a  number  of  persons, 
to  my  knowledge,  to  construct  a  machine  which  will 
set  onion  plants  expeditiously  and  in  a  perfect  manner. 
Thus  far  I  have  not  seen  the  machine  that  will  do 
better  and  quicker  work  than  a  nimble-fingered,  active 
and  willing  youngster  or  man.  And  yet  the  possibility 
of  finding  such  a  machine,  after  a  while,  is  by  no 
means  excluded.  We  will  welcome  it  whenever  it 
makes  its  appearance. 


CHAPTER     IV 
A   Perseverance   That  Pays 

TILLAGE    AS     MOISTURE    PRESERVER    AND    WEED    KILLER 

Little  needs  be  said  to  the  expert  gardener  about 
cultivation  and  its  objects.  He  knows  the  importance 
of  keeping  the  soil  well  stirred  among  all  garden  crops 
in  general,  and  among  onions  in  particular.  "Tillage 
is  manure"  is  an  old  saying.  In  the  present  case,  how- 
ever, we  care  little  about  the  manurial  effect,  for  we 
have  provided  plant  food  in  great  abundance.  The 
great  benefit  we  expect  from  cultivation  is  the  pres- 
ervation of  moisture,  and  incidentally,  the  destruction 
of  weeds.  An  inch  or  so  of  loose  soil  acts  as  a  mulch, 
and  a  most  excellent  one  at  that,  which  prevents  the 
rapid  evaporation  of  the  soil  water.  The  moisture 
rises  through  the  compact  soil,  by  means  of  capillary 
action,  until  it  reaches  the  stirred  portion.  Here  its 
progress  is  arrested,  and  the  only  way  to  reach  the 
surface,  and  escape  in  the  air,  is  by  evaporation,  which 
is  greatly  retarded  by  the  loose  layer  of  soil. 

The  chief  tool  required  for  the  process  of  soil 
stirring  is  a  good  hand  wheel-hoe,  such  as  the  Iron 
Age  shown  in  Fig  29  or  the  Planet  Jr,  or  any  of  a 
number  of  others  that  you  find  on  sale  at  seed  and 
supply  stores.  One  of  these  tools  you  should  and 
must  have.  It  is  absolutely  indispensable.  I  never 
use  the  vine  lifters  even  when  using  my  Iron  Age  as 
a  row  straddler.  Somefimes  I  can  do  even  more  satis- 
factory work  with  it,  when  I  use  it  as  a  single  wheel- 
hoe  and,  reversing  the  hoes,  go  between  the  rows.  You 


TILLAGE  33 

may  try  both  ways  and  select  the  one  that  seems  to 
work  best. 

We  begin  running  the  wheel  hoe  over  the  onion 
patch  a  few  days  after  the  plants  are  set  out,  and 
repeat  the  operation  just  as  soon  as  ;there  is  the  least 
sign  of  a  crust  over  the  surface.  The  aim  is  to  keep 
the  mulch  of  loose  soil  on  the  ground  all  the  time. 
Running  a  wheel  hoe  in  clean  mellow  soil  is  not  heavy 
work.  The  average  boy  will  rather  enjoy  it.  In  real- 


Fig    29 — IRON    AGE    HAND    WHEEL    HOE 

ity  it  is  probably  the  least  tiresome  work  in  the  whole 
business.  An  acre  can  be  gone  over  by  one  person, 
even  a  boy,  inside  of  one  day.  Fig  30  represents  a 
youngster  pushing  the  wheel-hoe  in  the  onion  field. 

Usually  we  begin  operations  with  the  double 
wheel-hoe,  straddling  the  rows.  As  the  season  ad- 
vances we  change  to  the  single  wheel-hoe  (Fig  31), 
running  it  between  the  rows. 

"Is  no  hand  weeding  to  be  done  at  all  ?"  you  may 
ask  me. 


bo 

£ 


TILLAGE 


35 


That  depends.  If  the  soil  is  of  weedy  character, 
or  the  patch  is  neglected  for  any  length  of  time,  we 
may  find  considerable  work — and  disagreeable  work — 


Fig    31 — SINGLE    WHEEL     HOE 

to  do  on  hands  and  knees.  With  timely  attention  little 
is  needed,  and  that  little  can  be  done  very  effectively 
by  means  of  Lang's  hand  weeder,  or  of  a  kitchen 


Fig  32 — LANG'S    HAND   WEEDER 

knife,  the  blade  of  which  is  bent  in  the  shape  of  a 
curve,  and  sharpened  on  both  sides.  The  way  the 
hand  weeder  is  used  is  illustrated  in  Fig  32.  There 
are  other  styles  of  hand  weeders  in  the  market,  and 
almost  any  of  them  answer  their  purpose  first  rate. 


36 


THE     NEW    ONION     CULTURE 


A  most  excellent  tool  for  taking  out  the  weeds 
in  the  rows  from  between  the  plants  can  be  easily 
made  from  an  old  worn-out  hoe,  leaving  the  lower 
part  (between  the  corners)  only  about  two  or  two 
and  one-half  inches  wide,  as  shown  in  Fig  33.  With 
this  sharp-cornered  tool  you  can  strike  between  the 
plants,  cutting  out  the  weeds,  and  loosening  the  soil. 
This  manipulation  and  the  free  use  of  the  wheel-hoe 
will  usually  be  all  the  cultivation  needed.  But  the 
hand  which  wields  the  sharpened  hoe  should  be  a 
careful  one,  and  be  guided  by  a  head  possessing  a 


33  —  HOMEMADE    ONION     HOE 


fair  degree  of  intelligence,  otherwise  the  onion  plants 
may  have  to  suffer. 

Will  it  be  feasible  to  substitute  a  mulch  of  fine 
manure  or  other  litter  for  cultivation  and  weeding? 
I  do  not  think  so,  unless  it  be  on  sandy  soil  and  in  a 
very  dry  season.  The  plan  works  well  in  growing 
celery.  It  may  be  tried,  cautiously,  for  onions.  In 
a  wet  season  it  will  increase  the  tendency  of  the  plants 
to  make  scallions.  I  have,  however,  had  reports  from 
several  intelligent  growers  who  told  me  that  they  had 
used  a  mulch  in  the  onion  patch  with  excellent  results 
in  a  dry  season. 

A  continuous  supply  of  moisture,  furnished  by 
sufficient  but  not  excessive  rainfall,  makes  a  large  yield 


IRRIGATION  37 

reasonably  certain.  Whether  irrigation  can  be  made 
to  take  the  place  of  the  natural  water  supply,  is  still 
an  unsolved  problem,  at  least  with  us.  An  oversupply 
at  any  time  is  liable  to  produce  a  large  proportion 
of  scallions,  and  the  bulbs  will  be  of  inferior  quality 
and  prove  poor  keepers.  Even  in  irrigation  countries, 
in  no  case  is  it  advised  to  irrigate  oftener  than  once 
a  week. 


CHAPTER    V 

% 

A    Timely  Pull  and  Haul 

WHEN    AND    HOW    TO    HARVEST    THE    CROP 

Now  we  come  to  an  important  point  in  our  under- 
taking. A  little  neglect  in  pulling  and  hauling  may 
result  in  great  damage,  if  not  ruin  to  the  crop.  I  know 
whereof  I  speak.  When  grown  by  the  new  method, 
the  onions  mature  several  weeks  earlier  than  they 
would  if  grown  in  the  old  way.  If  the  mature  bulbs 
are  left  in  the  ground,  especially  if  ripened  somewhat 
prematurely  by  a  dry  spell  in  July  and  August,  and  a 
long  period  of  rain  should  follow,  as  sometimes  hap- 
pens, growth  will  be  renewed;  and  we  might  just  as 
well  try  to  make  water  run  up  hill  as  attempt  to  stop 
an  onion  from  growing  when  once  started.  Of  course 
this  second  growth  ruins  the  bulb  for  the  market, 
unless  for  immediate  use. 

A  lesson  which  I  have  learned  by  costly  experi- 
ence is,  that  the  crop  should  be  pulled  just  as  soon 
as  the  bulbs  have  reached  maturity. 

"How  am  I  to  know,  when  the  onions  are  fit 
for  pulling?" 

The  tops  fall  over  at  maturity  and  begin  to  waste 
away,  the  substance  being  gradually  absorbed  by  the 
bulbs.  So,  when  the  majority  of  the  tops  are  dying 
down,  your  time  has  come.  Don't  wait  any  longer, 
especially  if  it  is  getting  pretty  well  along  in  the  season. 

Some  of  the  tops  may  yet  be  green  and  standing 
up  like  soldiers,  but  it  matters  not.  Pull  the  crop  and 
leave  on  the  ground.  The  bulbs  will  absorb  the  sub- 
stance of  the  tops,  and  the  latter  dry  away. 


HARVESTING     THE      CROP 


39 


Dry  weather  is  very  desirable  as  long  as  onions 
lie' on  the  ground  to  cure.  If  rain  comes,  it  is  well 
to  rake  them  over  carefully  with  a  lawn  rake  or 
wooden  rake  with  dull  teeth. 

"How  long  should  the  onions  be  left  on  the  ground 
to  cure?" 

It  may  take  a  week  or  more  of  dry  weather.  At 
any  rate  the  best  thing  that  can  be  done  is  to  gather 
the  crop,  even  if  only  partially  cured,  and  put  it  under 


Fig    34 — ONION     CURING     SHED 

shelter — in  open  sheds,  lofts,  on  the  barn  floor — any- 
where where  dry  and  airy,  afnd  where  the  onions  can 
be  spread  thinly  on  a  dry  floor. 

If  necessary,  work  them  over,  which  may  be  most 
conveniently  done  by  means  of  a  wooden  scoop  or 
shovel.  Of  course,  the  afternoon  of  a  dry  day  is  the 
best  time  for  gathering  and  hauling  the  onions,  for 
they  should  be  perfectly  dry  on  the  outside,  and  no 
dew  or  rain  on  them  when  put  under  shelter.  In  such 
places  they  may  be  left  until  perfectly  cured,  i  e, 
until  the  tops  have  almost  entirely  dried  away. 

A  shed  suitable  for  the  purpose  of  storing  onions  is 
shown  in  Fig  34.  The  dimensions  for  such  a  shed 


4O  THE    NEW    ONION     CULTURE 

may,  of  course,  be  varied  to  suit  the  needs  of  the 
grower.  All  the  bins  are  made  of  slats,  with  spaces 
between  for  free  circulation  of  air.  In  rainy  weather 
the  sides  may  be  covered  with  canvas  or  adjustable 
boards. 

Of  course,  the  spaces  between  the  bins  should  be 
large  enough  for  convenience  in  manipulation.  When 
the  onions  are  well  cured,  and  gathered  when  perfectly 
dry,  there  is,  however,  very  little  risk  in  storing  them 
in  a  layer  several  feet  thick  on  a  barn  floor  or  loft, 


Fig    35 — AN    ONION    CURING    CRIB 

where  thoroughly  protected  from  moisture.  Handle 
and  sort  them  over  for  market  as  convenient,  and 
certainly  before  there  is  danger  of  their  freezing. 

Mr  Henry  Price,  an  extensive  grower,  has  fur- 
nished me  description  and  plan  of  an  onion  curing 
crib  built  by  him  recently.  He  says  it  is  in  reality 
only  a  double  corn  crib.  It  is  eighteen  feet  wide  and 
eighty  long,  with  a  ten-foot  driveway  in  the  center 
the  whole  length.  This  leaves  the  width  of  crib  on 
each  side  four  feet ;  its  hight  eight  feet.  The  building 
is  lathed  all  around,  inside  and  outside,  similar  to  a 
corn  crib,  as  shown  in  Fig  35.  Of  course,  it  can  be 
put  up  to  suit  the  notions  of  the  persons  building  it, 


STORING     THE     CROP  4! 

and  quite  cheaply,  if  desired.  Ordinary  rough  posts, 
cut  in  the  woods,  set  into  the  ground  three  or  four 
feet  deep,  may  serve  as  a  framework.  I  think  I 
would  divide  the  storage  rooms  on  each  side  into 
shelves,  making  at  least  four  of  them,  each  two  feet 
deep.  The  onions  can  then  be  stored  twelve  to  eighteen 
inches  deep,  leaving  space  enough  for  free  airing  and 
drying  between  the  layers.  The  loft  may  also  be  used 
for  curing  onions,  or  for  storing  corn  and  for  other 
purposes. 

If  we  could  depend  on  dry  weather  right  along, 
we  might  easily  dispense  with  a  curing  shed,  lofts, 
etc,  as  the  bulbs  will  cure  very  well  outdoors.  In 
a  dry  spell  we  can  even  leave  the  crop  unharvested 
for  some  time  after  it  is  ready  for  pulling.  But  this 
is  not  a  safe  way.  Many  onions  are  lost,  or  much 
deteriorated  in  value,  by  being  left  unharvested 
too  long. 

Any  ordinary  corn  crib,  or  a  dry  loft  in  the  barn, 
may  be  utilized  for  a  place  to  store  onions  during 
late  summer  and  fall.  Of  course  we  don't  expect  to 
winter  them  in  any  place  where  exposed  to  repeated 
freezing  and  thawing  Gibraltar s  are  not  a  good 
keeper.  Prizetakers  when  well  matured  and  cured  can 
easily  be  kept  until  spring,  and  in  some  cases  it  may 
be  very  profitable  to  do  so. 

J.  G.  Rawley  of  Michigan  gives  in  American 
Agriculturist  the  following  description  of  his  newly 
erected  onion  storage  house.  (See  Fig  36.) 

"The  storage  house  shown  here  is  located  on  the 
south  side  of  a  hill  and  faces  south  and  east.  It  is 
forty  feet  long  by  twenty-four  wide,  and  has  a  stone 
basement.  The  stone  walls  on  either  side  are  seven 
and  one-half  feet  high  and  two  feet  thick;  wall  at 
west  is  twelve  feet  high,  the  one  at  the  east  end  eight 
feet.  There  are  two  stories  above  the  basement.  The 


STORING     THE     CROP  43 

• 

floors  are  formed  of  boards  three  and  one-half  inches 
wide  by  one  and  one-fourth  inches  thick,,  with  a  half- 
inch  space  between  boards.  The  roof  is  made  of 
matched  lumber,  well  put  together,  covered  with  several 
thicknesses  of  building  paper  and  shingled.  The  inte- 
rior of  the  building  is  lathed  and  plastered  and  the 
onions  will  stand  zero  weather  without  freezing. 

"On  the  ground  floor  there  is  an  alley  into  which 
a  wagon  may  be  backed  for  convenience  in  loading. 
The  building  is  provided  with  a  return  steam  heater, 
so  that  it  may  be  warmed  in  coldest  weather.  There 
is  also  a  forcing  window  on  the  south  side,  next  to  the 
east  end.  The  cost  of  storage  house,  steam  heater 
and  1000  crates  for  onions  was  $1000. 

"When  well  cured  I  store  my  onions  with  tops  on, 
and  they  keep  just  as  good  as  hay  that  is  well  cured. 
They  are  not  topped  until  cold.  For  convenience  in 
putting  in  the  crop,  there  is  a  track  on  the  west  end 
of  building  running  from  the  ground  to  top  floor.  The 
onions  are  carried  up  in  a  small  car  and  dumped  into 
the  bins  below." 

An  additional  word  of  warning  will  be  in  place. 
Never  leave  onions,  no  matter  how  well  cured  they 
may  appear,  in  large  heaps  or  in  boxes,  crates  or 
barrels  longer  than  a  few  days  at  most  before  you 
pick  them  over  and  remove  the  dead  tops,  roots  and 
other  rubbish.  When  the  onions  are  once  thoroughly 
cleaned  and  perfectly  dry,  they  will  keep  well  if  stored 
in  slatted  crates,  or  ventilated  barrels,  etc,  otherwise 
they  will  sweat,  gather  moisture,  and  begin  to  grow 
again,  or  possibly  become  infected  with  rot.  Neither 
is  it  safe  to  store  even  clean  and  supposedly  dry  onions 
in  tight  barrels  or  boxes  for  any  length  of  time. 


CHAPTER     VI 

The  Fragrant  Bulb   on  Sale 

Now  after  harvest  we  will  take  an  inventory  of 
the  stock  that  we  have  in  our  possession  ready  for 
turning  into  cash: 

What  do  we  have  ? 

First,  a  lot  of  Gibraltar  onions — mammoth  bulbs 
weighing  from  three-fourths  to  two  pounds  apiece, 
or  fully  up  to  the  size  of  the  imported  Spanish  onions 
found  in  our  stores ;  a  little  lighter  in  color,  but  if 
grown  on  sandy  soil  and  well  cured,  just  as  perfect 
and  as  handsome,  and  undoubtedly  even  milder  in 
flavor  and  finer  grained  than  the  imported,  and  less 
subject  to  the  rot  which  spoils  a  large  percentage  of 
the  imported  bulbs,  sometimes  even  before  they  come 
into  the  hands  of  the  groceryman.  I  will  not  deny, 
however,  that  the  Gibraltar  is  subject  to  the  attacks 
of  a  black  fungus  which  apparently  comes  from  the 
outside,  causing  at  first  a  discoloration  on  one  side, 
and  finally  ending  in  a  softening  of  the  tissues.  This 
rot  may  become  a  serious  matter  if  we  try  to  keep  the 
bulbs  for  any  length  of  time,  and  I  usually,  in  such 
case,  lose  several  per  cent  of  my  stock  from  this  cause. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  urgently  advise  growers 
of  Gibraltar  onions  to  put  the  crop  on  the  market  as 
early  as  possible  after  the  bulbs  are  harvested. 

While  I,  under  my  conditions,  find  it  advisable  to 
clean  up  the  Gibraltar  crop  by  November  or  December, 
I  have  reason  to  believe  perfectly  sound  and  well  cured 
bulbs  of  this  variety  may  be  kept  much  longer  in  good 
condition  if  stored  in  a  cool  and  perfectly  dry  place. 


SELLING     THE     CROP 


45 


I   find  the   demand   for   them,   however,   more  brisk 
earlier  in  the  season. 


Fig    37 — A    BUNCH    OF    PRIZETAKER    ONIONS 

The  Prizetaker  onion  is  a  much  better  keeper. 
I  want  a  portion  of  my  onions  to  be  of  this  sort,  for 
holding  until  the  increased  demand  later  in  the  winter 
or  toward  spring.  It  is  then,  usually,  when  our 


46  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

grocers  ask  five  or  more  cents  a  pound  for  the  imported 
Spanish  bulb.  I  can  see  no  reason  why  we  cannot 
meet  the  demand  for  a  sweet  onion  at  this  time,  or 
at  any  other,  with  our  domestic  bulbs,  which  are  at 
least  as  good  in  every  way  as,  and  possibly  better  in 
some  respects  than,  the  foreign  importation.  If  it  is 
only  a  foolish  notion  that  got  into  the  handlers  or 
consumers  of  sweet  onions  that  makes  them  consider 
the  imported  Spanish  article  superior  to  our  own 
production,  it  only  remains  for  us  to  teach  them  better 
things  and  the  truth  in  the  matter. 

The  stores  in  my  own  vicinity  sell  very  few  im- 
ported Spanish  bulbs  after  I  begin  to  supply  home 
grown  Gibraltars  and  Prizetakers  to  them  and  to 
consumers.  Whoever  once  buys  and  tries  our  own, 
becomes  at  once  a  convert  to  the  principle  of  patron- 
izing the  home  trade,  not  for  sentimental  or  patriotic 
reasons,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  better  product  and  the 
better  bargain,  and  for  the  recognized  superiority  of 
the  home-grown  bulbs.  People  who  have  proper  onion 
storage  facilities  will  find  no  difficulty  in  keeping  the 
Prizetaker  sound  and  perfect  until  spring,  and  in  find- 
ing quick  sale  for  it  at  a  good  price.  A  few  fine  spec- 
imens for  home  use  may  be  kept  for  a  long  period  in 
perfect  condition  by  being  tied  and  hung  up  in  a 
frost-proof  garret,  as  shown  in  Fig  37. 

Years  ago  I  hit  upon  the  plan  of  crating  up  the 
choicest  bulbs  in  the  same  way  as  the  imported  article, 
thus  competing  with  the  foreign  product  in  our  city 
and  town  markets.  This  is  now  proving  quite  a  profit- 
able method  of  marketing  the  bulbs  of  the  crop. 
The  crate  shown  in  Fig  38  is  similar  to  the  one  in 
which  the  imported  Spanish  onions  are  put  up.  End 
and  middle  pieces  are  seven  inches  wide  and  nineteen 
and  one-half  inches  long.  The  slats  which  form  the 
sides,  as  shown,  are  nineteen  and  one-half  inches  long 


SELLING     THE     CROP 


47 


and  two  inches  wide,  and  there  are  sixteen  of  them 
required  for  each  crate.  The  crates  will  cost  about 
ten  to  twelve  cents  apiece.  Possibly,  by  substituting 
split  stuff,  such  as  the  orange  growers  use  for  their 


Fig  38 — PRIZETAKER  ONIONS  CRATED  FOR  MARKET 

orange  boxes,  instead  of  sawed  slats,  the  cost  per  piece 
could  be  reduced  to  below  ten  cents. 

I  often  put  bulbs  in  these  crates  that  I  would  not 
dare  to  ship  in  barrels.  Sometimes  we  have  large 
fine  bulbs  that  are  imperfectly  capped  over,  and  there- 
fore not  fit  for  long  keeping.  It  would  not  be  safe  or 
good  policy  to  put  them  up  in  bulk,  and  under  ordinary 


48  THE    NEW    ONION     CULTURE 

circumstances  they  would  represent  just  so  much  waste, 
or  at  best,  we  might  be  able  to  sell  them  as  "seconds ' 
for  a  reduced  price  to  somebody  who  would  want 
them  for  immediate  culinary  use.  Such  bulbs  will 
often  answer  very  well  for  mixing1  with  others  in  the 
fancy  crates,  as  they  are  usually  sold  and  used  without 
much  delay,  and  as  dealers  who  '  handle  imported 
Spanish  onions  are  used  to  just  that  kind  of  imperfect 
bulbs,  and  to  their  deterioration  and  decay  when  kept 
for  some  little  time. 

To  give  an  idea  of  the  size  of  these  crated  Prize- 
takers,  will  state  that  the  number  of  specimens  con- 
tained in  each  crate  ranged  from  fifty  to  sixty,  only  in 
rare  cases  reaching  the  latter  figure.  The  large  speci- 
mens on  the  table  in  front  of  the  crate  weighed  about 
one  and  one-fourth  pounds  apiece.  A  foot  rule  ap- 
pears lying  across  the  two  at  the  right  to  show  their 
diameter. 

In  the  following  I  ^  give  the  experience  of  my 
friend,  J.  S.  Woodward,  of  Lockport,  who  has  grown 
Prizetakers  quite  extensively  for  a  number  of  years. 
The  soil  on  which  they  were  planted  was  a  rich, 
sandy  muck,  and  his  crops  were  immense.  Like  me, 
he  had  crates  made  in  imitation  of  the  imported 
Spanish  onion  packages,  and  of  the  dimensions  already 
given.  A  crate  of  this  kind  holds  something,  less  than 
a  bushel  of  onions,  between  three  and  four  pecks,  or 
nearly  fifty  pounds  (the  weight  of  a  bushel  of  onions 
in  this  state  usually  being  taken  as  fifty-six  pounds). 
Mr  Woodward  would  send  a  sample  crate  of  Prize- 
takers  to  some  reliable  commission  house  each  in 
Boston,  Philadelphia,  Pittsburg,  New  York,  etc,  and 
solicit  orders  for  a  carload.  Thus  he  has  shipped  his 
crops,  in  carload  lots,  to  dealers  offering  him  best 
prices,  and  he  has  had  no  trouble  in  disposing  of  his 
large  bulbs  in  this  way,  receiving  for  them  from 


SELLING     THE     CROP  49 

seventy-five  cents  to  one  dollar  and  thirty-five  cents 
per  crate,  or  an  average  of  close  to  $100,  and  thus 
making  the  business  pay  him  quite  well. 

There  are  chances  everywhere  of  selling  at  least 
a  portion  of  the  crop  directly  from  the  field.  My 
emphatic  advice  is  to  sell  all  that  can  be  sold  at  a 
fair  price.  Get  rid  of  the  onions,  and  pocket  the 
money.  With  the  crops  of  Gibraltars  and  Prizetakers 
that  I  usually  raise,  I  can  make  more  money  from 
them  selling  at  sixty  cents  a  bushel,  than  I  possibly 
could  by  growing  Danvers,  Yellow  Globe  or  any  other 
on  the  old  plan,  selling  them  at  one  dollar  a  bushel. 
It  is  surely  no  small  job  to  take  care  of  a  crop  such 
as  can  be  grown  on  a  single  acre.  It's  a  big  thing. 
Never  lose  sight  of  that  fact. 

I  imagine  some  people  will  wish  to  know  how 
onions  can  be  most  successfully  wintered  over.  Under 
some  circumstances  it  may  pay  well  to  store  and  hold 
them  for  spring  sales.  An  onion  storage  house  found 
on  the  grounds  of  a  grower  in  Michigan  has  already 
been  described  in  a  preceding  chapter.  There  is  a 
party  over  in  Canada  who  grows  quite  a  number  of 
acres  of  onions  every  year,  and  he  invariably  holds 
them  until  spring,  and  makes  money  by  so  doing. 
Of  course,  I  was  anxious  to  learn  how  he  winters  such 
big  crops,  and  made  inquiry.  He  wrote  me  as  follows : 

"For  the  purpose  of  keeping  onions  during  the 
winter  we  have  erected  two  large  rooms  in  the  end  of 
our  barn,  above  ground.  These  rooms  are  almost 
frost-proof  in  the  coldest  weather;  are  provided  with 
double  windows  at  each  end,  and  double  doors  at 
entrance  from  driveway  on  barn  floor.  All  the  walls 
have  a  dead  air  space.  Building  paper  is  tacked  on 
in  the  inside  of  each  boarding  that  forms  the  hollow 
space. 


5O  THE    NEW    ONION     CULTURE 

"Onions  are  not  put  into  these  rooms  in  bulk,  but 
in  thousands  of  slatted  bushel  boxes.  The  windows 
are  kept  constantly  open,  except  in  very  cold  weather. 
The  idea  is  to  put  in  dry,  well  cured  stock,  and  place 
it  in  such  a  way  that  it  may  always  be  airing  at 
suitable  times,  and  yet  be  secure  against  low  degrees 
of  temperature." 

Be  sure  to  bear  in  mind  the  following  general 
hints:  Never  attempt  to  keep  onions  that  are  not 
capped  over  perfectly,  and  not  entirely  dormant,  both 
at  top  and  root  part.  If  they  are  thus  perfect,  it 
will  not  be  a  hard  task  to  keep  them  over  winter, 
provided  you  have  a  dry,  cool  and  airy  room,  where 
you  can  keep  them  from  freezing.  Never  store  them 
in  a  large  bulk  together.  Onions  will  also  keep  quite 
well  when  frozen.  Store  on  the  floor  of  some  out- 
building, say  fifteen  inches  deep,  and  as  far  away 
from  the  wall.  When  frozen  cover  with  a  two-foot 
layer  of  hay ;  but  do  not  handle  them. 


CHAPTER    VII 
All's  Well   That  Ends   Well 

ADVANTAGES     AND     PROFITS    OF    THE     NEW     WAY 

That  the  new  method  of  onion  growing  gives  us 
a  great  increase  of  crop,  besides  many  other  advantages 
over  the  old  way,  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  doubt.  The 
great  question  now  is,  whether  the  new  way  is  also1 
the  more  profitable  one,  and  if  so,  how  profitable. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  transplanting 
method  calls  for  one  and  a  half  to  two  pounds  of 
seed  per  acre,  while  ordinarily  not  less'  than  six  pounds 
are  sown.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  the  additional 
labor  of  growing  plants  in  frames,  which  is  more 
than  an  offset  for  the  saving  of  seed.  The  new 
way  requires  the  considerable  and  tedious  labor  of 
transplanting,  an  operation  which  will  cost  at  least 
twenty-five  dollars  per  acre.  On  the  other  hand,  we 
save  so  much  hand  labor  in  thinning  and  weeding 
that  one  might  well  be  considered  an  offset  for 
the  other. 

On  the  whole,  we  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  expenses  of  the  crop,  up  to  the  time  of  har- 
vesting, are  very  near  the  same,  whether  we  follow 
the  new  or  the  old  method.  The  chief  advantages  of 
the  new  onion  culture,  therefore,  are  clear  gain. 
Among  them  we  have : 

i.  Earlier  ripening  of  the  crop.  With  six  weeks 
to  start  in  sowing,  the  crop  will  come  to  maturity 
several  weeks  earlier  than  it  would  otherwise.  This 
gives  a  chance  for  marketing  the  earlier  sorts  much  in 


52  THE    NEW     ONION     CULTURE 

advance  of  competitors  who  adhere  to  the  old  onion 
culture,  as  also  in  clearing  the  ground  for  a  succeed- 
ing crop,  such  as  celery,  turnips,  fall  spinach,  etc, 
while  the  season  is  made  considerably  longer  for 
the  late  Prizetaker,  which  otherwise  has  hardly  time 
at  the  extreme  North  to  come  to  a  full  development. 

2.  A  decided  improvement  of  the  bulbs  in  respect 
to  shape  and  uniformity. 

3.  Quicker  sale  and  better  price,  in  consequence 
of  the  finer  appearance  of  the  bulbs. 

4.  A  greatly   increased  yield,  to  the   extent  of 
doubling  that  obtained  by  the  ordinary  method. 

5.  The  elimination  of  all  uncertainties  from  the 
business.     Even  failure  would  mean  what  people  now 
call  a  "big'  crop."     Nothing  short  of  hail  and  flood 
could  prevent  a  good  profit  in  this  new  onion  culture, 
if  managed  with  ordinary  intelligence  and  care. 

It  requires  particularly  suitable  or  favorable  con- 
ditions, and  a  considerable  amount  of  skill,  to  produce 
a  big  crop  of  onions  by  the  older  method.  Anybody  of 
good  common  sense,  even  if  of  little  practical  expe- 
rience or  unusual  skill,  who  has  a  fairly  good  patch  of 
ground,  can,  if  he  wants  to,  grow  a  crop  of  Gibraltars 
or  Prizetakers  of  which  he  may  be  proud. 

The  following  is  a  somewhat  rough  estimate  of 
the  expenses  and  receipts  on  the  basis  of  my  own 
experience  and  surrounding  conditions.  Supposing 
that  only  1000  bushels  are  grown  per  acre,  we  then 
have  the  following : 

EXPENSES    OF    CROP    PER    ACRE 

Raising  the  plants $20.00 

Rent  of  land,  one  acre 5.00 

Manure 45«oo 

Superphosphate,  400  pounds 2.40 

Muriate  of  potash,  250  pounds 5.60 


ADVANTAGES     AND     PROFITS  53 

Nitrate  of  soda,  200  pounds $4-5o 

Applying  manure,  etc 16.00 

Plowing  and  harrowing 4.00 

Marking   2.00 

Seed   3.50 

Transplanting 27.00 

Cultivation  and  weeding 20.00 

Pulling  crop 5.00 

Gathering,  hauling,  crating 40.00 

Crates,   etc , 100.00 


Total   -. $300.00 

RECEIPTS 

By  1000  bushels  of  onions  at  75  cents $750.00 

Less  expenses  as  above 300.00 


Net   profit $450.00 

This  seems  to  me  a  perfectly  safe  estimate.  In 
some  cases  the  grower  may  realize  more  than  seventy- 
five  cents  per  bushel,  and  his  profits  will  then  be  cor- 
respondingly increased.  In  other  cases  he  may  have 
to  accept  even  a  smaller  price  than  given  in  this  esti- 
mate. But  even  if  these  fine  bulbs  should  not  bring 
more  than  fifty  cents  a  bushel,  or  $500  for  the  whole 
crop,  the  profits  will  still  be  $200,  after  all  expenses, 
every  bit  of  labor  included,  have  been  paid. 

In  a  good  onion  season  the  crop  should  not  be  less 
than  1000  bushels  per  acre,  if  properly  managed.  If 
it  exceeds  this  amount  (and  1500  bushels  per  acre 
is  an  easy  possibility),  this  would  add  to  the  expense 
in  harvesting  and  marketing,  and  increase  the  total 
expenses  of  the  crop,  but  it  would  also  increase  the  net 
profits  accordingly. 


54  THE     NEW    ONION     CULTURE 

What  other  crop  could  be  expected  to  give  similar 
results  and  with  greater  certainty?  I  am  unable  to 
name  a  single  one  among  ordinary  farm  or  market 
garden  crops  that  holds  out  greater  promises  of  satis- 
factory results. 

If  the  outcome  comes  near  to  meet  the  estimates 
here  given,  the  grower,  after  all  his  pains  and  expend- 
iture in  the  venture,  may  well  say,  "All  is  well  that 
ends  well." 


CHAPTER    VIII 


The   Old   Onion   Culture 

"Our   father's   way 
Was  the  good  old  way, 
Brought   home  and  land, 
And  cash  to  hand 
We'll  not  despise  the  good  old  way." 

Many  of  the  details  of  onion  growing  told  in  the^ 
preceding  pages  apply  both  to  the  old  system  and' 
the  new.  Some  additional  information  concerning 
what  some  young  growers  may  consider  "the  good 
old  way,"  will  undoubtedly  be  acceptable  to  many 
readers.  . 

No  matter  under  what  system  the  crop  is  to  be 
grown,  I  would  select  manure  and  prepare  the  land 
as  advised  in  the  second  chapter.  Low  lands  of 
mucky  character  are  used  in  many  localities  with 
excellent,  results.  Yellow  Globe  Danvers  and  Early 
Red  are  well  suited  for  such  soils.  The  crops  are 
often  very  large,  but  the  individual  bulbs ,  hardly  as 
firm  as  when  grown  on  uplands. 

Make  the  seed  bed  perfectly  smooth  with  Meeker 
harrow  or  steel  rake.  It  is  not  necessary  to  mark  out 
the  ground.  For  business  operations,  and  by  this  I 
mean  for  purposes  more  extensive  than  the  production 
of  a  mere  home  or  family  supply,  a  good  seed  drill  is 
indispensable.  At  the  present  time,  the  leading  garden 
drills  are  the  Planet  Jr  and  Iron  Age.  Fig  39  shows 
the  latter  in  operation.  The  one  advantage  of  this 
and  similarly  constructed  drills  is  that  you  can  keep 


THE     OLD     ONION     CULTURE  57 

watch  of  the  seed  in  the  hopper,  and  also  note  how  it  is 
deposited.  Before  sowing  seed,  it  may  be  advisable  to 
test  the  machine,  and  its  delivery  of  the  seed.  Place  a 
bed  sheet  or  a  row  of  sheets  of  paper  on  a  barn  floor ; 
put  some  seed  into  the  drill,  set  the  drill  as  you  think 
it  should  be  and  sow  along  upon  the  sheet  or  papers. 
Of  course  you  want  seeds  deposited  perhaps  twice  as 
thickly  in  the  row  as  you  will  want  the  plants  to 
stand.  Some  seeds  will  not  grow,  or  the  young  plants 
may  die.  It  will  be  better  to  be  compelled  to  thin  the 
plants  a  little  than  to  have  large  spaces  in  the  rows 
without  plants.  Thinning  is  easier  than  rilling  in  with 
plants,  although  both  operations  are  only  too  often 
neglected  to  the  great  injury  of  the  crop  or  yield. 

When  sowing  seed  with  the  drill,  I  begin  by 
stretching  a  garden  line  along  one  side  of  the  patch, 
a  few  inches  frcm  where  I  want  the  first  row.  This 
serves  as  a  guide,  and  I  take  great  pains  to  have  this 
row  and  all  the  following  ones  perfectly  straight. 
Sow  as  early  in  the  spring  as  soil  and  season  will 
permit. 

The  opening  marked  for  onion  seed  in  the  Planet 
Jr  drill  lets  the  seed  run  out  pretty  freely,  perhaps  at 
the  rate  of  eight  pounds  to  the  acre,  and  when  the  soil 
is  in  first  rate  order,  and  the  seed  fresh  and  good,  as 
this  always  should  be,  I  usually  let  the  seed  run 
through  the  next  smaller  opening,  which  sows  five  or 
six  pounds  per  acre. 

The  Iron  Age  drill,  when  the  indicator  is  set  to 
point  to  the  onion  mark,  sows  from  five  to  seven 
pounds  of  onion  seed  per  acre.  I  now  make  the  rows 
fourteen  inches  apart,  and  when  sure  of  the  freshness 
"of  the  seed,  try  to  sow  about  five  pounds  to  the  acre. 
Consequently  I  usually  set  the  indicator  just  a  trifle 
short  of  the  onion  mark,  thus  making  the  discharge 
opening  a  little  bit  smaller.  The  small  roller  attached 


58  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

to  the  seed  drill  firms  the  soil  sufficiently  to  insure 
prompt  germination  of  the  seed. 

The  weeds  have  to  be  watched  much  more  closely 
than  in  the  new  onion  culture.  The  roller  marks  in- 
dicate where  the  rows  are,  and  the  wheel-hoe  may  be 
set  agoing,  carefully,  at  first,  even  before  many  of  the 
plants  have  broken  ground.  Then  keep  it  agoing. 

Next  comes  hand  weeding,  which  should  be  begun 
as  soon  as  weeds  can  be  seen.  Scrape  the  soil  away 
from  the  rows.  Never  draw  it  up  toward  them. 
Repeat  as  often  as  needed,  at  the  second  or  third  weed- 
ing also  pull  up  the  plants  that  are  in  excess  of  a  fair 
stand.  This  I  find  much  the  better  way.  It  makes 
the  crop  more  uniform,  and  therefore  more  valuable 
and  more  satisfactory.  Ordinary  varieties  should  in 
no  case  average  more  than  one  plant  to  the  inch,  where 
they  stand  most  crowded,  and  they  should  have  more 
space  on  very  rich  soil  than  on  one  not  sufficiently 
enriched.  The  after-treatment  of  crop,  harvesting,  etc, 
is  exactly  the  same  as  described  for  the  new  onion 
culture. 

For  many  years  the  Yellow  Globe  Danvers  has 
stood  at  the  head  of  onion  varieties  to  be  grown  for 
market  and  for  general  purposes,  in  the  old  way.  In 
many  instances  I  now  find  it  outranked  by  the  South- 
port  Yellow  Globe.  Both  are  excellent  sorts,  however, 
unequaled,  in  fact,  by  any  other.  Prizetaker  has  given 
almost  as  good  crops,  in  some  instances,  although 
later,  when  grown  directly  from  seed,  as  when  grown 
by  the  new  transplanting  system.  The  Australian 
Brown  is  liked  by  some  growers  for  its  earliness, 
reliability  for  bottoming,  and  unexcelled  keeping 
quality.  The  claim  is  made  for  it  that  it  can  be  kept 
in  good  condition,  sound  and  without  sprouting,  for 
a  whole  year,  that  is,  until  bulbs  of  the  succeeding 
crop  are  fully  matured.  I  have  not  been  shiningly 


THE    OLD    ONION     CULTURE 


59 


successful  in  my  attempts  to  grow  this  onion,  either 
from  seed  direct  or  by  transplanting,  for  which  I 
blame  my  lack  of  skill  and,  possibly,  of  opportunity. 

I   have  already  stated   my   opinion   of   red   onions. 
I  do  not  want.  them.    My  markets  almost  reject  them. 


Fig    4<D — COMPARATIVE    SIZE    OF    ROUND     ONIONS 

They  are  not  particularly  popular  except  for  some 
special  purposes  in  special  localities.  As  a  standard 
red  market  variety,  Red  Wethersfield  has  always  stood 
at  the  head.  It  is  immensely  productive  and  a  good 
keeper. 

Extra  Early  Red  is  a  very  early  deep  red  onion 


60  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

of  medium  size.  I  believe  we  have  both  a  flat  and  a 
round  strain  of  it.  It  is  recommended  especially  for 
the  extreme  North  and  Northwest,  and  for  cold  and 
mucky  soil. 

Southport  Red  Globe  is  the  exact  counterpart  of 
Southport  Yellow  Globe,  only  of  a  rich  deep  red  color, 


Fig    41 — COMPARATIVE    SIZE    OF    FLAT    ONIONS 

and,  like  the  other,  as  handsome  an  onion  as  could 
be  imagined. 

Of  the  white  sorts,  I  only  recognize  one,  namely, 
the  Southport  White  Globe,  as  a  variety  worthy  of 
consideration  for  general  market  purposes.  It  is,  like 
its  yellow  and  red  counterparts,  a  strikingly  handsome 
onion  and  a  fairly  good  keeper;  but  it  does  not  find 
favor  in  our  markets  equal  with  the  yellow  onions. 

The  form  and  comparative  size  of  round  and  flat 
onions  are  shown  in  Fig  40  and  Fig  41. 


THE     OLD     ONION     CULTURE  6l 

Much  of  the  ultimate  outcome  of  every  attempt 
to  grow  a  paying  crop  of  onions  depends  on  the  quality 
and  freshness  of  the  seed.  Sometimes  two-year-old 
seed,  when  well  kept,  does  very  well.  I  have  fre- 
quently had  it  germinate  promptly,  and  grow  as 
vigorously  as  fresh  seed.  In  other  cases  it  absolutely 
refused  to  grow.  So  I  always  prefer  to  use  strictly 
fresh  onion  seed.  If  you  will  do  as  I  do,  namely,  buy 
your  onion  seed  early,  of  a  reliable  seedsman,  and  test 
it  before  you  plant  it,  so  that,  should  it  fail  to  ger- 
minate as  it  ought,  you  may  be  able  to  secure  a  fresh 
supply  before  planting  time,  .you  will  be  reasonably 
safe  from  loss  and  disappointment  on  account  of 
poor  seed. 

ONIONS    FOR    PICKLING 

This  branch  of  the  business  can  often  be  made 
to  pay  well.  At  one  time,  not  long  ago,  I  was  quite 
enthusiastic  over  the  possibilities  of  the  pickling 
onion  as  a  money  crop.  But  not  having  the  right  kind 
of  soil,  which  should  be  very  clean  and  very  sandy 
(no  other  will  do),  I  finally  gave  it  up  beyond  the 
extent  of  home  production.  There  is  usually  a  very 
good  demand,  almost  everywhere,  for  really  fine  bulbs 
for  pickling  purposes,  especially  during  August  and 
September.  The  sight  of  a  well  graded  lot  of  Barletta 
(also  sent  out  as  White  Queen)  onions  will  delight 
and  tempt  any  housewife.  Neither  will  she  be  apt 
to  find  fault  with  the  price  if  you  ask  her  ten  or  twelve 
cents  a  quart  for  them.  At  wholesale  they  have 
recently  been  bringing  about  two  dollars  or  two  dollars 
and  a  half  per  bushel.  On  my  heavier  loam  I  find  it 
much  easier  to  raise  two  dollars  by  setting  out  250 
or  300  Gibraltar  or  Prizetaker  seedlings  than  by  sow- 
ing an  eighth  or  a  quarter  pound  of  Barletta  seed.  But 


62 


THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 


you  can  try  the  Barletta  if  you  have  the  right  kind  of 
soil  for  it,  especially  a  clean,  clear  sand. 

The  general  management  of  the  pickling  crop  is 
the  same  as  for  market  in  the  old  way,  only  that 
you  must  sow  more  seed,  say  from  forty  to  fifty  pounds 
to  the  acre,  and  leave  every  plant  to  grow.  The  rows 
may  be  put  nearer  together  than  for  large  onions. 
Ten  inches  apart  is  sufficient,  unless  considerations  for 
convenience  in  cultivation  induce  you  to  put  them 


Fig    42 — HOMEMADE     PICKLING    ONION     SIEVE 

twelve  inches  apart.  The  seed,  of  course,  is  sown 
with  the  garden  drill.  We  have  to  be  very  careful 
in  this  operation  so  as  to  use  the  proper  amount  of 
seed,  and  yet  prevent  waste.  Sometimes  I  sow  only 
half  the  amount  of  seed  at  a  time,  and  go  twice  in  the 
same  row,  thus  spreading  the  seed  over  a  space  of 
nearly  two  inches  for  each  row. 

When  ripe  enough  for  gathering,  here  usually 
early  in  August,  the  Barlettas  need  prompt  attention, 
just  as  soon  as  the  most  of  the  tops  have  fallen  over, 
the  onions  are  pulled  or  taken  up  with  a  garden  trowel, 


THE     OLD     ONION     CULTURE  63 

and  thrown  into  a  sieve  having  about  four  meshes  to 
the  inch,  so  that  the  dirt  and  sand  may  be  sif  teii  out ;  or 
they  may  simply  be  left  on  the  ground  for  a  day  or 
two  to  cure,  provided  the  weather  remains  dry.  Then 
gather  them  up,  preferably  on  sieves  such  as  used  for 
drying  raspberries  and  other  fruit,  and  store  under 
shelter  where  they  have  a  good  chance  to  dry  out 
thoroughly.  Afterward  they  can  be  cleaned  and 
sorted.  I  use  a  sieve  for  cleaning  pickling  onions  and 


\ 


Fig  43 — ASSORTED  BARLETTA  ONIONS 

onion  sets.  This  is  a  simple  homemade  affair,  shown 
in  Fig  42.  The  screen  used  has  four  meshes  to  the 
inch.  The  mechanical  genius  of  the  family  will  have 
little  difficulty  to  construct  a  sieve  or  drum  like  mine 
or  similar  to  it.  Put  a  moderate  quantity  of  the  little 
onions  into  this  drum,  let  them  get  quite  dry,  and  then 
turn  until  they  are  clean.  They  may  then  be  sorted, 
which  is  easily  done  by  running  through  a  coarse 
meshed  sieve  (meshes  to  be  about  three- fourths  inch), 
and  are  then  ready  for  use  or  sale.  The  usual  sizes  into 
which  they  are  assorted  are  shown  in  Fig  43. 

Housewives  often  complain  of  the  trouble  they 
have  in  cleaning  small  pickling  onions.    This  is  simply 


64  THE     NEW    ONION     CULTURE 

because  they  do  not  know  how  to  do  the  job  properly. 
Put  the  bulbs — tops,  roots  and  all — in  weak  brine  for 
a  day  or  so.  Then  there  will  be  neither  hard  work  nor 
the  shedding  of  tears  over  it. 

GROWING     ONION     SETS 

For  growing  sets  the  following  hints  will  suffice : 
Select  Silverskin  for  white,  Early  Red  for  red,  and 
Yellow  Dutch  (or  perhaps  Yellow  Danvers)  for 
yellow,  and  sow  seed  at  the  rate  of  forty  to  sixty 
pounds  to  the  acre.  Handle  in  somewhat  the  same 
.fashion  as  the  pickling  onions.  All  that  will  not  pass 
through  a  sieve  with  three-fourths-inch  meshes  are 
too  large  for  sets,  and  should  go  among  the  larger 
pickling  onions. 

We  have  also  found  that  the  set  grown  from 
Prizetaker  seed  will  keep  as  well  as  any  other  onion 
set  known  to  us,  and  that  it  will  make  a  remarkably 
fine  and  sweet  early  green  or  bunching  onion.  For 
wintering  any  onion  sets,  you  must,  of  course,  have  a 
room  where  you  can  keep  them  cool  and  dry,  either 
just  above  the  freezing  point,  or  if  a  little  below  freez- 
ing, constantly  low  enough  that  they  will  not  thaw 
out  until  near  planting  time. 

For  green  onions  the  sets  are  planted,  in  a  mild 
climate  during  the  fall,  here  where  the  winters  are 
severe,  in  early  spring,  in  rows  a  foot  apart,  in  furrows 
an  inch  or  two  deep,  and  an  inch  or  two  apart  in 
the  row. 

The  earliest  green  or  bunching  onion  is  the 
Egyptian  Winter  or  Perennial  Tree  onion  (Fig  44). 
This  is  hardy  as  an  oak,  and  in  good  soil  will  spread 
like  a  weed,  and  yield  immense  quantities  of  a  fairly 
good  green  onion,  especially  if  planted  rather  deep, 
say  three  inches,  so  that  the  lower  end  of  the  stalk 


BUNCHING     ONIOTNS  65 

or  bulb  becomes  nicely  blanched.'  This  is  propagated 
from  top  sets,  the  latter  to  be  planted  as  soon  as  they 
are  mature,  which  is  some  time  in  August,  this  in  a 
spot  where  they  can  be  left  for  years,  to  yield  an 
annually  increased  amount  of  green  stalks  for 
bunching. 

Another  plan  of  growing  bunching  onions  has 
recently  found  consideration.  This  is  to  sow  seed 
of  the  hardy  Barletta,  and  possibly  White  Portugal 


Fig    44 — EGYPTIAN    OR    PERENNIAL    TREE    ONION 

or  Silverskin,  in  open  ground  during  August,  in  same 
way  as  for  ordinary  onions,  only  using  more  seed,  and 
leaving  the  onions  out  over  winter,  perhaps  slightly 
protected  by  a  thin  layer  of  coarse  litter,  to  make 
green  bunching  onions  in  early  spring.  I  have  had 
fairly  good  success  in  first  trials. 


Fig    45 — ONION     FIELD     IN    BLOOM 


bo 


68  THE    NEW    ONION     CULTURE 

GROWING     ONION     SEED 

One  of  my  neighbors  who  grows  the  Prizetaker 
from  sets  for  an  early  green  onion,  also  grows  not 
only  his  own  sets,  but  the  seed  which  he  sows  for  sets. 
Any  grower  can  do  the  same  thing  if  he  wishes.  A 
few  additional  hints  may  not  come  amiss. 

First  grow  the  large  onions  in  same  way  as  you 
would  grow  them  for  market  from  seed  sown  in  open 
ground.  Select  perfectly  sound,  well-matured  bulbs 
of  the  shape  and  color  desired  in  your  ideal  onion, 
and  store  them  in  a  dry,  cool  place  where  safe  from 
freezing,  or  at  least  from  alternate  freezing  and  thaw- 
ing. In  early  spring  select  moderately  rich  soil,  and 
apply  no  more  than  a  moderate  dressing  of  compost 
or  chemical  fertilizers.  Fit  this  soil  thoroughly  for 
planting,  by  plowing  and  harrowing,  and  then  set 
the  onions  in  furrows,  six  inches  deep  and  four  to  six 
inches  apart.  The  furrows  may  be  made  three  or  three 
and  a  half  feet  apart.  The  seed  is  ripe  when  the  seed 
pods  and  the  upper  end  of  the  seed  stalk  turn  yellow, 
and  part  of  the  pods  burst  open.  Then  cut  the  heads, 
gathering  them  in  any  convenient  receptacle  to  carry 
to  a  dry  loft  where  they  are  to  be  spread  out  thinly. 
When  thoroughly  dry,  they  are  to  be  thrashed  and 
cleaned  by  passing  through  a  fanning  mill.  The  final 
cleaning  is  given  by  washing.  The  heavy  plump  seeds 
sink  to  the  bottom,  when  placed  in  a  tub  of  water. 
The  chaff  and  light  seeds  float  and  are  gently  poured 
off.  Place  in  a  muslin  bag  to  drain  off  the  water,  then 
spread  out  thinly  in  a  warm  dry  place  to  dry. 

Onion  seed,  for  commercial  purposes,  is  now 
raised  in  California  more  extensively  than  in  any 
other  part  of  the  world,  as  the  climatic  conditions  are 
more  favorable  there  than  elsewhere.  The  long,  dry 
summers  of  California  insure  a  perfect  ripening  of 


GROWING     ONION     SEED  69 

the  crop,  and  there  is  no  danger  of  rain  spoiling  the 
seed.  The  moisture1  necessary  for  the  roots  the  grower 
can  supply  from  his  irrigation  canals  whenever  re- 
quired, thus  practically  making  the  climate  to  suit 
himself.  Most  of  the  work  can  be  done  outdoors 
which  greatly  facilitates  the  handling  of  the  crop. 
There  is  another  factor  which  comes  to  the  aid  of  the 
California  seed  grower,  and  this  is  the  availability  of 
cheap  temporary  labor.  When  work  is  pressing  ho 
can  hire  any  number  of  Chinamen  for  a  day  or  week 
until  his  crop  is  in  safety.  Fig  45  gives  an  idea  of 
the  large  scale  at  which  this  industry  is  carried  on, 
showing  a  partial  view  of  a  thirty-seven-acre  field  of 
onions  for  seed,  at  Santa  Clara,  the  plants  just  coming 
into  bloom.  Fig  46  presents  a  section  of  a  field  of 
Prizetaker  onions  ready  for  harvesting. 


CHAPTER     IX 

Soils  and  Manures  for  Onions 

On  the  subject  of  the  preparation  of  the  soil  for 
onions,  by  previous  cropping,  the  Farmers'  Bulletin 
No  39  says : 

"Soils  which  are  stiff  and  heavy,  which  contain 
too  much  sand,  which  abound  in  pernicious  weeds,  or 
are  deficient  in  fertility,  may  be  greatly  improved  by 
the  cultivation  of  one  or  more  crops  previous  to  plant- 
ing onions.  A  favorite  practice  in  some  sections  is  to 
sow  clover,  and  after  the  first  crop  is  cut  for  hay,  the 
second  growth  is  allowed  to  rot  on  the  field  and  with  a 
heavy  dressing  of  stable  manure  is  plowed  under  in 
the  fall.  The  following  spring  the  ground  is  planted 
in  potatoes  and  the  next  year  onions  are  grown.  Such 
a  course  of  treatment  leaves  the  soil  in  excellent  con- 
dition. The  land  is  improved  by  the  application  of 
manure  and  the  decomposition  of  the  clover  roots  and 
tops,  while  the  nitrogen  supply  is  increased  both  by 
means  of  the  clover,  which  gathers  this  element  from 
the  atmosphere,  and  by  the  manure.  The  effect  of 
such  treatment  is  to  enrich  the  soil,  make  it  loose  and 
friable,  and  free  it  from  many  weed  seeds.  Crimson 
clover  could  be  used  to  advantage  in  states  where  this 
legume  thrives,  since,  when  plowed  under,  it  produces 
the  same  effect  as  red  clover. 

"Cowpeas  are  used  as  a  substitute  for  clover  in 
the  South.  The  peas  may  be  sown  in  July  or  August, 
after  a  crop  of  early  potatoes  has  been  removed. 
The  dead  tops  are  plowed  under  later  in  the  fall,  with 
a  liberal  dressing  of  barnyard  manure.  If  either  cow- 
peas  or  clover  is  used,  and  followed  the  next  year  by 


SOILS     AND     MANURES  71 

some  hoed  crop  which  does  not  impoverish  the  soil  to 
any  considerable  extent,  the  land  is  put  in  the  best 
condition  for  raising  onions.  Carrots  are  said  to  be 
the  most  desirable  crop  to  precede  onions.  Corn  and 
potatoes,  however,  are  not  objectionable.  Of  course, 
more  plant  food  should  be  applied  than  these  crops 
remove,  so  that  the  soil  will  be  constantly  improved." 

All  of  this  I  heartily  endorse.  The  subject  of 
selection  and  application  of  manures  is  treated  as 
follows : 

"The  onion  requires  a  liberal  amount  of  plant 
food  in  the  most  available  form.  The  quantity  and 
quality  of  manures  which  would  make  potatoes,  cab- 
bages, tomatoes,  or  many  other  garden  crops  profitable 
will  not  give  even  a  fair  compensation  in  onion  culture, 
unless  favored  by  soils  highly  fertile  in  their  natural 
state.  Beginners  fail  more  frequently  perhaps  from 
lack  of  appreciation  of  this  fact  than  from  any  other 
cause.  The  most  expensive  item  in  onion  culture  is 
labor.  A  prominent  grower  estimates  that  it  costs 
$100  per  acre  to  start  the  seedlings,  prepare  the  soil, 
transplant,  cultivate,  weed,  and  pull  the  crop  when 
the  new  onion  culture  is  adopted.  The  cost  of  labor 
is  just  as  great  for  a  crop  of  500  bushels  as  for  1000. 
Hence  it  is  judicious  for  the  onion  grower  to  be  liberal 
in  the  use  of  fertilizers.  If  the  supply  of  fertilizer  is 
limited  it  will  pay  better  to  manure  one  acre  thoroughly 
than  two  sparingly. 

"Barnyard  manure  is  indispensable  in  the  pro- 
duction of  superior  bulbs  unless  the  soil  naturally 
contains  a  large  amount  of  humus.  Muck  soils  may 
be  treated  with  concentrated  commercial  fertilizers 
alone,  but  nothing  can  be  entirely  substituted  for 
barnyard  manure  on  other  soils  with  as  satisfactory 
results.  Hen  manure  is  very  highly  esteemed  by  onion 
growers  because  of  its  high  percentage  of  fertilizing 


72  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

constituents.  Next  to  this  manure,  that  from  the 
pigsty  is  considered  most  valuable,  although  rotten 
barnyard  manure  of  any  kind  gives  good  results.  It 
is  customary  to  deposit  the  manure  in  large  piles  where 
it  can  undergo  fermentation,  or  to  compost  it  with 
other  materials.  From  forty  to  seventy-five  loads  per 
acre  should  be  applied  if  a  large  yield  is  expected. 
It  should  be  spread  evenly  over  the  surface  just  before 
plowing  in  the  fall  or  early  spring,  a  manure  spreader 
being  valuable  for  this  purpose. 

"Hen  manure  will  produce  the  best  results  when 
applied  as  a  top-dressing  before  planting.  Poultry 
droppings  should  be  dried  and  pulverized  before  broad- 
casting. Specially  prepared  composts  should  also  be 
spread  after  plowing  and  thoroughly  mixed  with  the 
surface  soil  by  harrowing.  A  common  practice  near 
large  cities  is  to  secure  night  soil  and  compost  it  with 
barnyard  manure,  muck  or  loam.  This  makes  a  val- 
uable top-dressing.  Care  should  be  exercised  that  all 
the  manures  used  are  free  from  weed  seeds. 

"We  may  learn  something  on  the  question  of 
fertilizing  by  studying  the  composition  of  the  onion. 
An  analysis  made  by  the  Connecticut  experiment 
station  of  White  Globe  onions  showed  that  2000  pounds 
of  mature  bulbs  contain  2.70  pounds  of  nitrogen,  0.92 
pound  of  phosphoric  acid,  and  2.09  pounds  of  potash. 
The  average  legal  weight  per  bushel  in  different  parts 
of  the  Union  is  about  fifty-six  pounds.  A  yield  of 
800  bushels  per  acre  is  frequently  reported.  A  crop 
of  this  size  (44,800  pounds),  therefore,  would  remove 
from  an  acre  of  soil  60.48  pounds  of  nitrogen,  20.61 
pounds  of  phosphoric  acid,  and  46.82  pounds  of  potash. 

"This  shows  that  the  onion  removes  the  three 
essential  fertilizing  constituents  from  the  soil  in  large 
quantities,  and  these  must  be  supplied  to  the  soil  if  it 
does  not  already  contain  them.  Soils  which  have  been 


SOILS     AND      MANURES  73 

freely  cropped  with  clover,  cowpeas,  or  other  legumi- 
nous plants  are  not  likely  to  be  deficient  in  nitrogen, 
although  light  dressings  of  the  quick-acting  nitrate 
of  soda  may  often  be  profitable  on  such  soils.  Potash 
and  phosphoric  acid,  however,  must  usually  be  applied 
more  liberally.  Sometimes  one  and  sometimes  the 
other  of  the  three  principal  fertilizing  constituents — 
nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid  and  potash — is  deficient  in 
the  soil.  It  is  important  for  each  grower  to  study  the 
special  requirements  of  his  soil.  A  few  experiments 
with  concentrated  fertilizers  will  settle  many  doubtful 
points.  It  is  impossible  to  supply  the  needed  fertili- 
zers in  the  proper  proportions  without  first  acquiring 
a  fair  knowledge  of  the  fertilizing  constituents  already 
in  the  soil. 

"Of  the  nitrogenous  commercial  fertilizers,  nitrate 
of  *oda  is  the  most  largely  used.  It  contains  about 
fifteen  per  cent  of  nitrogen.  This  salt  is  readily 
soluble  and  exceedingly  quick  in  its  action.  It  should 
never  be  applied  in  the  fall  or  winter,  because  a  large 
amount  of  the  nitrogen  would  be  washed  out  of  the 
soil  before  the  growing  crop  required  it.  From  200 
to  400  pounds  applied  in  four  equal  dressings  is  suffi- 
cient in  most  cases.  The  first  application  should  be 
made  just  before  seeding  or  planting  and  mixed  with 
the  surface  soil  by  harrowing.  The  other  dressings 
may  be  given  at  intervals  during  the  growing  season, 
carefully  broadcasting  the  salt.  Ammonium  sulphate, 
dried  blood  and  wool  refuse,  which  are  also  nitroge- 
nous fertilizers,  are  occasionally  substituted  for  sodium 
nitrate,  and  soot  is  sometimes  used  with  advantage. 

"To  supply  the  potash,  wood  ashes  are  frequently 
employed.  They  have  the  additional  advantage  of 
improving  the  mechanical  condition  of  the  soil,  making 
it  loose  and  friable.  Either  leached  or  unleached  ashes 
may  be  used  with  satisfactory  results,  the  latter  being 


74  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

more  valuable  on  account  of  their  larger  content  of 
potash — five  to  ten  per  cent.  From  six  to  eight  tons 
of  unleached  or  ten  to  fourteen  of  leached  ashes  is  a 
liberal  supply.  Ashes  should  be  drilled  or  harrowed 
in  after  plowing.  If  ashes  are  not  available,  or  if  the 
expense  of  transportation  is  excessive,  the  grower  will 
find  potash  salts,  such  as  kainit  and  muriate  of  potash, 
valuable  fertilizers.  They  are  applied  in  the  fall, 
winter  or  early  spring.  The  soil  will  retain  the  potash 
until  the  plants  require  it,  so  that  the  loss  by  drainage 
is  exceedingly  small.  Kainit  contains  thirteen  to 
fourteen  per  cent  of  potash,  and  the  muriate  about 
fifty  per  cent.  About  200  to  300  pounds  per  acre  of 
the  muriate,  or  800  to  1000  pounds  of  kainit,  is  a  suf- 
ficient application.  They  should  be  sown  broadcast 
after  plowing,  and  harrowed  in  or  distributed  by  means 
of  a  fertilizer  drill.  A  few  hundred  pounds  of  bone 
meal  or  other  phosphates  will  be  beneficial,  if  phos- 
phoric acid  is  needed. 

"The  manures  applied  are  never  completely  taken 
up  by  the  growing  crop.  This  makes  it  necessary  to 
supply  more  than  is  actually  needed.  In  the  case  of 
the  potash  and  phosphoric  acid,  for  which  the  soil  has 
a  strong  retentive  power,  the  excess  will  remain  to 
benefit  succeeding  crops." 

In  a  general  way  I  may  add  that  the  selection 
and  application  of  plant  foods,  for  the  onion  crop  as 
well  as  for  all  others,  is  largely  a  matter  for  the  exer- 
cise of  uncommonly  good  common  sense  and  good 
judgment. 


CHAPTER    X 


Onion     Varieties 

With  reference  to  the  methods  of  propagation, 
onions  may  be  divided  into  three  classes :  ( I )  Onions 
produced  by  division  of  the  bulb;  (2)  onions  produced 
from  top  sets  or  button  onions,  and  (3)  onions  grown 
from  black  seed.  The  last  named  may  be  separated 
into  two  subdivisions,  namely,  American  and  foreign 
types. 

According  to  Professor  Bailey's  Annals  of  Horti- 
culture, about  twenty  kinds  of  multipliers,  potato 
onions  and  sets  were  offered  by  American  dealers 
in  1889. 

The  leading  variety  of  the  first  class  (onions 
produced  by  division  of  the  bulb)  is  the  Potato  onion 
or  Multiplier,  shown  in  Fig  47. 

This  is  most  largely  grown  in  southern  localities. 
The  yellow  variety  has  been  in  cultivation  for  many 
years,  while  the  white  sort  is  of  much  more  recent 
introduction.  The  bulbs  are  thick,  compact,  tender  if 
eaten  soon  after  pulling,  and  very  mild  and  sweet  in 
flavor.  Fall  planting  is  generally  resorted  to  with 
this  variety,  the  sets  being  placed  in  drills  four  or 
five  inches  deep.  As  the  name  "Multiplier"  indicates, 
if  a  large  bulb  is  planted,  division  occurs  during  the 
season  of  growth,  resulting  in  the  formation  of  from 
three  to  ten  or  more  bulbs  from  the  parent.  If  sets 
are  planted,  they  will  make  single  large  onions,  but  not 
multiply.  The  plants  begin  active  growth  very  early 
in  the  spring  and  may  be  bunched  and  marketed  at  a 
good  profit,  or  may  be  allowed  to  mature.  In  the 


76  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

milder  sections  of  the  South  the  Potato  onion  will 
grow  during  the  entire  winter.  The  mature  bulbs 
should  be  stored  in  thin  layers  in  a  dry  apartment  to 
insure  their  keeping.  This  variety  is  rarely,  if  ever, 
affected  by  the  onion  maggot.  From  the  fact  that  the 
small  bulbs  increase  in  size  and  the  large  ones  multi- 
ply, it  is  necessary  to  plant  both  sizes  in  order  to  secure 
onions  for  market  and  also  maintain  the  stock. 

Shallots  are  frequently  mistaken  for  the  Potato 
onion.  They  differ  from  it  in  throwing  up  an  occa- 
sional seed  shoot  and  in  the  bulb  always  multiplying, 


Fig    47 — POTATO    ONION    OR    MULTIPLIER 

which  is"  not  true  with  small  Potato  onions.  The  bulbs 
are  more  oblong  in  shape  than  the  Potato  onion. 
Shallots  are  small,  may  be  kept  the  year  round,  and 
possess  a  mild,  pleasant  flavor. 

TOP    ONIONS 

To  this  class  of  onions,  produced  from  top  sets, 
as  shown  in  Fig  44,  properly  belongs  the 

Egyptian  (Winter  Onion,  Perennial,  or  Tree 
Onion) — An  unusually  hardy  variety  in  the  colder 
states,  remaining  in  the  ground  with  safety  all  winter. 
It  starts  early  in  the  spring  and  may  be  bunched  and 
marketed  several  weeks  before  any  other  variety. 
The  quality  is  inferior,  but  the  bulbs  may  be  readily 


VARIETIES  77 

sold  when  better  varieties  are  wanting.  The  bulblets 
or  top  sets  of  this  should  be  planted  as  soon  as  they  are 
fully  matured,  which  is  during  August.  This  onion 
also  grows  from  division  of  the  bulb.  If  planted 
somewhat  deep  in  rich,  loose  soil,  the  stalk  blanches 
in  the  manner  of  leeks  as  usually  grown  by  good 
gardeners  and  makes  a  green  onion  of  fairly  good 
quality. 

The  common  Top  Set  or  Button  onions  are  usually 
grown  for  green  bunching  by  planting  the  bulblets 
in  spring  (at  the  North)  in  same  manner  as  the 
ordinary  sets  that  were  grown  from  the  black  seed 
are  planted. 

Of  the  common  or  "seed"  onions,  about  eighty 
varieties,  including  synonyms,  are  offered  by  Amer- 
ican seedsmen.  I  give  a  description  of  the  leading 
ones,  largely  quoted  from  Farmers'  Bulletin  No  39 : 

AMERICAN     VARIETIES 

Danvers  (Danvers  Yellow,  Round  Yellow  Dan- 
vers,  Yellow  Globe  Danvers) — The  most  largely 
grown  of  the  yellow  onions,  being  produced  in  im- 
mense quantities  for  shipping  purposes.  It  is  very 
productive,  giving  much  larger  yields  than  varieties 
which  form  flat  bulbs.  Four  hundred  to  600  bushels 
per  acre  from  seed  sown  in  the  field  is  a  very  common 
yield,  while  800  to  1000  bushels  are  sometimes  har- 
vested. The  bulbs  are  very  solid,  large  when  given 
the  proper  attention,  compact,  and  of  excellent  flavor. 
This  vaiiety  commands  higher  prices  than  red  onions 
in  most  markets. 

Extra  Early  Red — On  account  of  its  earliness 
in  maturing,  this  variety  is  valuable  in  many  sections. 
The  bulbs  are  rather  small,  flat  in  shape,  and  good 
keepers.  It  is  especially  well  adapted  to  cold,  mucky 
soils,  and  is  largely  used  in  the  production  of  sets. 


7o  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

Silver  Skin  (White  Portugal,  Philadelphia 
White) — A  variety  largely  used  in  the  production 
of  the  white  sets  sold  by  seedsmen.  The  bulbs  are 
handsome,  medium  sized,  and  of  excellent  flavor.  It 
commands  higher  prices  than  the  red  or  yellow  sorts, 
but  is  not  so  productive  nor  so  easily  wintered  unless 
thoroughly  cured.  The  smaller  bulbs  are  popular 
for  pickling. 


Fig  48 — LARGE   RED   WETHERSFIELD 

Wethersfield  (Wethersfield  Red,  Large  Red 
Wethersfield) — The  most  extensively  grown  red  sort. 
It  rivals  the  Yellow  Danvers  in  many  portions  of  the 
country.  Some  markets  prefer  it  to  that  variety. 
The  bulbs  are  large,  growing  six  to  eight  inches 
in  diameter  in  especially  favorable  localities.  It  is 
very  productive  and  a  good  keeper.  The  bulbs  are 
somewhat  flattened  in  form ;  in  this  respect  being 
inferior  to  the  Yellow  Danvers.  The  skin  is  deep 


VARIETIES  79 

purplish-red,  the  flesh  purplish-white,  rather  coarse  and 
of  stronger  flavor  than  that  of  the  yellow  onions.  A 
typical  specimen,  much  reduced  in  size,  is  shown  in 
Fig  48. 

White  Globe  (Southport  White  Globe)— The 
perfect  globe  shape  and  smooth  white  skin  make  this 
one  of  the  handsomest  onions.  It  always  commands 
good  prices,  but  requires  more  care  in  cultivating, 
harvesting  and  storing  than  the  red  and  yellow  sorts. 
The  flesh  is  fine  in  grain,  pure  white,  and  of  superior 
flavor.  The  bulbs  are  large  and  yield  well  when  given 
careful  attention.  This  sort  should  be  grown  in  every 
family  garden  in  preference  to  any  other  large  white 
American  onion. 

Yellow  Strasburg  (Yellow  Dutch) — A  productive 
variety,  the  bulbs  being  slightly  darker  in  color  than 
Yellow  Danvers ;  of  good  size ;  quite  flat,  with  a  white 
and  mild  flesh.  Yellow  Danvers  is  preferred  to  the 
Strasburg  by  most  growers. 

Red  Globe  and  Yellow  Globe  (Southport) — These 
varieties  closely  resemble  the  White  Globe,  except 
in  color. 

Australian  Brown — Of  medium  size,  good  qual- 
ity; early;  somewhat  flattened  in  shape,  of  brown  color 
and  remarkably  hard  and  solid.  It  begins  to  form  a 
bulb  at  an  early  period  of  growth,  and  quickly  reaches 
maturity.  For  keeping  qualities  it  is  perhaps  unsur- 
passed. 

Gold  Seal — An  early  variety,  rich  in  color,  much 
like  the  Danvers,  but  perhaps  larger,  harder  and  a 
better  keeper. 

Early  Yellow  Cracker  (Extra  Early  Cracker, 
Rhode  Island  Yellow  Cracker) — The  earliest  of  the 
yellow  sorts ;  of  good  quality,  but  should  be  carefully 
handled  to  insure  its  keeping  qualities. 


So  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

Giant  Zittau — A  very  large  German  onion  of  fine 
quality.  Surpassed  here  by  our  standard  varieties,  and 
for  size  by  Prizetaker  and  many  of  the  foreign  sorts. 

Prizetaker — I  am  tempted  to  include  this  in  the 
list  of  American  onions,  although  its  origin  is  undis- 
putably  foreign.  But  seed  of  this  famous  onion  has 
been  grown  in  America  for  many  years,  and  the  onion 
now  holds  a  secure  place  among  our  standard  sorts. 
Its  name  is  inseparably  interwoven  with  the  "new 
onion  culture."  Its  introducer,  Mr  William  Henry 
Maule  of  Philadelphia,  gives  me  the  following  data 
about  its  history.  He  says  : 

"I  discovered  the  Prizetaker  in  the  hands  of  a 
gentleman  residing  in  the  Santa  Clara  valley,  Califor- 
nia, whom  I  happened  to  be  visiting  in  the  summer 
of  1886.  I  was  so  impressed  with  it  that  I  persuaded 
him  to  plant  all  the  bulbs  he  raised  for  seed,  and  agreed 
to  take  all  he  had.  It  was  first  offered  in  my  1888 
catalog,  and  since  then  has  been  one  of  my  leading 
specialties.  It  was  some  years  before  it  became  gen- 
erally known,  but  finally,  largely  through  the  adver- 
tising which  you  yourself  gave  it,  its  merits  became 
recognized,  and  to-day  it  is  prominently  listed  in  all 
the  leading  American  seed  catalogs." 

This  variety  is  a  favorite  with  all  growers  who 
follow  the  transplanting  method.  It  gives  more 
general  satisfaction  than  any  other  variety  in  the  pro- 
duction of  bulbs  from  seed  sown-  under  glass,  the 
young  plants  being  transferred  to  the  open  ground. 
American  grown  seed  is  greatly  preferred.  The 
Prizetaker  is  uniform  and  globular  in  form,  and  very 
large,  some  specimens  weighing  from  four  to  six 
pounds  having  been  grown  in  this  country  under 
special  cultivation,  while  from  one  to  three  pounds 
are  very  common  weights.  It  ripens  well,  and,  if 
properly  cured,  may  be  kept  through  the  winter, 


VARIETIES  8l 

although  it  is  considered  a  poor  keeper.  The  bulbs 
are  bright  yellow,  with  a  thin  skin.  The  flesh  is 
white,  fine  grained,  mild,  with  a  delicate  flavor.  A 
bunch  of  typical  Prizetakers  is  shown  in  Fig  37. 

Pink  Prizctaker — Similar  to  the  Yellow  Prize- 
taker  in  every  respect  except  color,  which  is  light  red. 

Prizewinner — A  white  Prizetaker. 

FOREIGN     VARIETIES 

B arietta  (Adriatic  Barletta)— The  bulbs  of  this 
variety  are  pure  white,  measuring-  from  one  inch  to 
one  and  one-half  inches  in  diameter,  and  about  three- 
fourths  of  an  inch  in  thickness.  It  is  very  early;  the 
bulbs  are  smooth,  uniform,  and  handsome  in  appear- 
ance, which  makes  them  especially  valuable  for  pick- 
ling. For  this  purpose  no  other  variety  is  better 
adapted.  The  flesh  possesses  a  mild,  delicate  flavor. 
To  secure  the  best  results  the  seed  should  be  sown  in 
loose,  rich,  friable  soil.  Seed  is  furnished  by  many 
seed  houses  also  under  the  name  "New  Queen,"  "Early 
White  Queen,"  "Pearl,"  etc.  As  I  remember  the  New 
Queen  from  the  time  of  its  first  introduction,  twenty- 
five  or  more  years  ago,  it  seemed  larger  and  somewhat 
later  than  Barletta.  The  probabilities  are  that  Bar- 
letta and  New  Queen,  in  the  establishments  of  many 
seed  dealers,  come  from  the  same  seed  bag. 

Bermuda  (Red  Mammoth  Tripoli,  Bermuda 
Red) — The  bulbs  of  this  variety  are  large,  fine 
grained,  and  of  excellent  flavor.  The  skin  is  thin  and 
rich,  and  of  a  blood-red  color.  The  flesh  is  white. 
It  is  largely  imported  into-  this  country. 

Early  Pearl  (Silver  White  Aetna,  American 
Pearl) — An  Italian  variety  which  matures  very  early. 
The  round,  flattened  bulbs  are  pure  white,  amd  possess 
a  mild,  pleasant  flavor.  It  is  excellent  for  sets  or 


82  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

pickling-,   and    is    highly    esteemed    by    some    market 
gardeners. 

Giant  Rocca  (Rocca  of  Naples) — This  is  a  very 
large  onion  that  is  well  adapted  to  the  transplanting 
method  of  culture  in  the  South.  It  requires  a  long 
season  to  mature  the  bulbs.  Its  flavor  is  mild  and 
very  pleasant.  The  bulbs  are  globular  in  shape,  with 
a  light,  reddish-brown  skin.  It  is  very  productive 
when  transplanted  or  where  the  season  is  of  suffi- 
cient duration. 

.  Giant  Red  Rocca — This  variety  differs  very 
slightly  from  the  preceding,  except  that  it  is  darker 
in  color. 

Giant  White  Rocca  (Silver  Ball)— One  of  the 
most  valuable  sorts  of  the  Italian  type.  The  bulbs 
are  very  large,  white,  globular,  compact,  and  the  flesh 
is  white,  with  a  mild,  pleasant  flavor.  An  excellent 
variety  for  either  home  consumption  or  market  when 
the  transplanting  method  is  adopted. 

Giant  Yellow  Rocca  (Spanish  King) — Resembles 
the  Giant  Red  in  every  particular  except  color,  which 
is  a  bright  yellow.  This  variety  may  be  transplanted 
with  very  satisfactory  results. 

Mammoth  Pompeii — This  is  one  of  the  largest  of 
the  foreign  varieties,  bulbs  weighing  over  four  pounds 
having  been  grown  in  this  country.  It  does  not  appear 
to  lose  in  quality  when  grown  to  such  an  enormous 
size.  Ft  should  be  grown  by  the  transplanting 
method.  The  bulbs  are  red,  with  thin  skins.  The 
flavor,  as  is  usual  with  the  foreign  sorts,  is  very 
mild  and  pleasant. 

Marzajola  (Italian  May) — A  small,  early,  flat 
onion.  The  bulbs  are  white  and  of  superior  quality. 

New  Queen  (Pearl,  Early  White  Queen) — This 
variety  is  quite  generally  known  irr  the  South  as  the 
Pearl  onion,  but  "New  Queen"  is  the  preferable  name. 


VARIETIES  83 

It  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  sorts  for  growing 
pickling  onions  from  seed,  although  the  Barletta  is 
considered  superior  by  many  gardeners.  The  bulbs 
are  pure  white  aird  can  scarcely  be  excelled  in  flavor. 
Seeds  may  be  sown  in  February  where  the  season 
is  sufficiently  early,  and  mature  bulbs  will  be  pro- 
duced by  June.  If  sown  in  July  or  August  another 
crop  will  be  ready  to  harvest  late  in  fall.  The  onions 
measure  from  one  to  two  inches  in  diameter  and 
generally  command  high  prices.  See  also  "Barletta." 


Fig   49 — WHITE    TRIPOLI    ONION 

Red  Victoria — A  large,  handsome  globular- 
shaped  onion.  Skin  very  dark  red;  flesh  white  or 
very  light  rose-colored ;  mild,  pleasant.  A  heavy,  rich 
loam  is  best  adapted  to  this  variety. 

Mammoth  White  Garganus  or  Silver  King 
(Mammoth  Silver  King) — A  very  large,  white  Italian 
variety.  Bulbs  are  flattened ;  flesh  white,  with  a  mild, 
sweet  flavor. 

White  Italian  Tripoli  (El  Paso,  Large  Mexican) 
— The  Texas  experiment  station  reports  that  out  of 


84 


THE     NEW    ONION     CULTURE 


fifty-eight  varieties  grown  in  1895  from  seeds  sown 
in  the  open  ground  this  variety  gave  the  largest  yield. 
It  is  very  large  size,  flat  in  form,  with  a  white  skin, 
as  shown  in  Fig  49. 

White  Victoria — The  White  Victoria  is  consid- 
ered the  most  valuable  of  the  White  Italian  onions  for 
transplanting.  The  bulbs  are  very  large,  globular 


Fig  50— BEAULIEU'S   HARDY  WHITE  ONION 

and  handsome.  Wherever  tested  it  is  most  highly 
esteemed.  It  produces  heavy  crops  when  the  proper 
treatment  is  given. 

Giant      Gibraltar — Introduced      by      W.      Atlee 
Burpee  &  Co  of  Philadelphia  about   1898.     It  is  a 


VARIETIES  85 

larger  onion  than  even  Prizetaker,  and  still  milder 
in  flavor.  Its  season  of  ripening  is  a  week  or  two 
later.  It  has  a  light  straw  colored  skin,  white  crisp 
flesh,  and  is  perhaps  the  most  satisfactory  onion  to 
be  grown  by  the  new  transplanting  method,  where 
appearance  and  large  yield  are  first  considerations. 
It  is  particularly  subject  to  fungous  diseases4,  and  not  to 
be  recommended  as  a  keeper.  Mr  Burpee  writes  me 
as  follows  in  respect  to  the  origin  of  this  splendid 
onion : 

"We  can  give  you  very  little  information  regard- 
ing the  origin  of  the  Gibraltar.  All  we  know  is  that 
it  originated  in  Spain.  There  having  been  on  the 
market,  when  introduced,  so  many  of  the  varieties 
of  the  Spanish  type  of  onion  seed,  such  as  Yellow 
Spanish,  White  Spanish,  Spanish  King,  etc,  we  de- 
cided that  the  name  'Gibraltar'  would  prevent  its 
being  confused  with  previously  introduced  or  inferior 
varieties.  We  have  many  growers  in  the  South  that 
are  growing  the  Gibraltar." 

Hardy  White  Onion  (Beaulieu's),  Fig  50 — I  am 
a  little  in  doubt  about  its  true  origin,  and  whether  it 
belongs  under  the  American  or  foreign  onions.  The 
introducer,  Mr  Henri  Beaulieu  of  Woodhaven,  Long 
Island,  claims  that  it  is  a  strain  or  cross  of  the  White 
Portugal.  From  a  single  trial  (1901-1902)  it  seemed 
to  me  to  be  of  the  Barletta  or  New  Queen  type. 
Grown  from  seed  in  open  ground  (sowed  in  August, 
1901),  it  stood  the  severe  winter  without  protection 
unharmed  and  gave  an  early  crop  of  fine  bunching 
onions.  From  H,  W.  Camden,  Long  Island,  I  have  the 
following  report:  "We  sow  Beaulieu's  Hardy  White 
onion  seed  during  the  month  of  August.  Plants  of 
early  sowings  can  be  transplanted  or  remain  in  the 
seed  bed  ready  for  bunching  to  come  in  between  winter 
onions  (scallions)  and  onions  from  sets.  If  left  to 


86  THE     NEW     ONION     CULTURE 

ripen  they  will  get  as  big  around  as  a  silver  dollar. 
We  bunch  all  for  New  York  market.  In  1901  we 
sowed  two  other  varieties  with  them  on  same  day  and 
on  same  ground.  All  came  up  well.  The  Hardy  White 
stood  the  winter  well.  The  others  died  off.  This 
year  we  have  three  other  sorts  side  by  side  with  the 
Hardy  White.  The  seed  seems  to  be  rather  delicate 
of  germination.  This  is  the  third  or  fourth  year  we 
sowed  this  Hardy  White  onion.  This  season  we  have 
sowed  twenty-five  or  thirty  pounds.  They  are  a  good 
flavored,  nice  bunching  onion." 


CHAPTER     XI 

Insects  and  Diseases  Affecting  the   Onion   Crop 

The  Onion  Maggot  (Anthomyia  ccparuin) — The 
following  is  taken  from  the  Connecticut  experiment 
station  reports : 

"The  adult  insect,  a  small  two-winged  fly,  de- 
posits its  eggs  on  the  lower  portion  of  the  young 
onion  plants  during  the  months  of  April  and  May. 
In  about  a  week  the  eggs  give  rise  to  small,  whitish 
grubs  or  maggots  which  eat  their  way  into  the  bulbs, 
upon  which  they  feed  for  about  two  weeks.  They 
then  leave  the  bulb,  enter  the  ground,  and  change  to 
the  pupa  condition,  from  which,  in  course  of  time, 
the  adult  flies  emerge.  Occasionally  the  maggots 
remain  in  the  bulb  and  the  brown  pupae  are  found 
in  the  stored  onions.  Several  broods  are  produced 
during  the  summer.  The  various  stages  of  develop- 
ment of  the  insects  are  shown  in  Fig  51. 

"Various  methods  of  destroying  this  pest  have 
been  recommended.  Ormerod  (in  A  Text  Book  of 
Agricultural  Entomology)  suggests  rotation  with 
some  other  crop  in  order  that  the  flies  emerging  from 
the  pupae  which  remain  in  the  soil  may  not  find  onion 
plants  at  hand  upon  which  to  deposit  their  eggs ; 
earthing  the  young  plants  well  up  above  the  collar  so 
that  the  flies  are  prevented  from  reaching  the  bulb; 
pulling  and  destroying  the  plants  first  affected,  by 
which  means  the  migration  of  the  maggots  to  sound 
bulbs  is  checked ;  the  avoidance  as  far  as  possible  of 
natural  manures,  in  which  the  larvae  of  these  insects 
live;  or  finally  the  application  of  lime  to  the  land." 
E.  O.  Orpet  (in  Garden  and  Forest)  recommends  the 


88  THE     NEW    ONION     CULTURE 

following  method,  which  is  well  worth  a  trial :  "Half 
a  pint  of  kerosene  is  well  mixed  with  a  pailful  of 
some  dry  material,  preferably  wood  ashes,  but  sand, 
sawdust,  or  even  dry  soil  will  do  fairly  well;  after 
the  plants  are  well  up  and  the  trouble  is  at  hand,  a 
sprinkling  of  this  mixture  along  the  rows  about  twice 
a  week  during  the  time  the  fly  does  its  work  will  be 
found  a  sure  prevention  of  the  trouble.  After  the 
end  of  May  there  is  little  danger,  as  the  onions  are  of 
a  good  size  and  not  so  liable  to  injury." 


Fig   51 — THE  ONION  MAGGOT  (ENLARGED) 

i,  affected  onion;   2,  the  maggot  at  work;  3,  the   full-grown  larva;  4,  the 
cocoon  ;  5,  the  adult  onion  fly 

I  invariably  plant  radishes,  and  often  cauliflowers 
and  cabbages,  in  immediate  vicinity  of  the  onion  patch, 
or  perhaps  a  few  rows  here  and  there  right  in  it. 
The  radishes,  cauliflowers,  etc,  appear  to  act  as 
"catch"  plants.  At  least  they  are  usually  more 
or  less  affected  by  maggots,  while  the  onions  are 
seldom  attacked.  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  strong 
lime  water  made  from  freshly  burnt  lime  will  kill 
all  the  maggots  with  which  it  comes  in  contact.  To 
apply  it,  soak  the  ground  around  the  plants  so  thor- 


INSECTS    AND    DISEASES  89 

oughly  that  the  application  will  reach  the  worm 
feeding  at  the  root  stalk  or  bulb. 

When  the  plants  are  in  a  hotbed,  maggots  can  be 
destroyed  by  inserting  bisulphid  of  carbon  into  the 
soil.  Professor  Bailey  recommends  to  puddle  the 
plants  when  transplanting  in  a  puddle  to  which  sulphur 
has  been  added,  and  sprinkle  sulphur  about  the  plants 
after  they  are  set.  Of  course  all  infested  plants  should 
be  pulled  up  and  burned  at  once. 

The  Onion  Thrip  (Thrips  tabaci) — Onion  grow- 
ers sometimes  find  their  onions  affected  in  a  manner 
that  they  are  undecided  whether  to  lay  the  blame  on 
insects  or  disease.  When  a  plant  appears  as  shown 
in  Fig  52,  most  people  will  say  that  it  has  been  struck 
by  blight.  The  truth  is,  however,  that  the  enemy  is 
a  small  insect  or  midge.  The  illustration,  taken  from 
a  bulletin  of  the  Ohio  station,  shows  a  plant  that  is 
very  seriously  affected,  and  totally  crippled,  by  thrips. 
The  effects  of  the  attacks  appear  as  a  white  blast, 
and  may  be  easily  mistaken  for  a  diseased  condition. 
We  may  not  have  much  to  fear  from  this  enemy  in 
a  wet  season.  It  is  the  dry  season  which  is  liable  to 
bring  us  the  attacks  of  thrips.  The  Florida  agricul- 
tural experiment  station  reports  that  the  insect  was 
first  noticed  there  about  the  middle  of  April  in  1897, 
infesting  onions  at  the  station  gardens,  and  that  the 
insects  were  destructive  until  about  July  I,  when  they 
gradually  disappeared.  I  quote  as  follows  from 
Bulletin  46 : 

"In  1898,  the  insect  was  observed  April  28,  to  be 
quite  abundant  on  onions  in  the  horticultural  depart- 
ment, and  some  days  later,  Professor  Rolfs  called 
my  attention  to  its  occurrence  on  cabbage  and  cauli- 
flower. To  these  plants  it  proved  quite  destructive 
during  May,  and  the  first  two  weeks  of  June.  By 
the  last  of  June,  the  insects  were  becoming  very 


90  THE     NEW    ONION     CULTURE 

scarce,  and  by  July  15,  none  were  to  be  found.  Begin- 
ning with  July,  considerable  rain  had  fallen,  which 
may  have  hastened  their  disappearance. 

"This  species  is  injurious  to  the  foliage  of  plants. 
On  the  onions,  it  chafes  off  the  epidermis  from  the 


Fig    52 — PLANT    ATTACKED    BY    THRIPS 

green  leaves,  thereby  causing  them  to  dry  out,  whiten 
and  frequently  die.  On  the  cabbage  and  cauliflower 
their  effects  are  about  the  same.  They  are  much  more 
abundant  on  the  lower  surface  of  the  leaves,  where 
they  chafe  off  the  leaf  substance,  much  as  in  their 
attack  on  onions. 

"According  to  Mr  Th.  Pergande,  assistant  ento- 
mologist, United  States  department  of  agriculture,  the 


INSECTS    AND    DISEASES  pi 

onion  thrip  occurs  in  the  following-  localities: 
Russia,  Germany,  Bermuda,  Connecticut,  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  Ohio,  Illinois, 
Colorado  and  California.  To  these  should  now  be 
added  Florida.  It  is  doubtless  of  European  origin, 
and  has  been  brought  over  in  some  shipment  of  onions 
or  cabbage.  The  insect  was  first  made  known  to 
science  by  Dr  Londeman  of  Moscow,  who  found  it 
very  destructive  to  tobacco  in  southern  Russia. 

"The  egg  of  this  species  is  almost  colorless,  .elon- 
gate, and  curved.  The  egg  state  lasts  from  three  and 
a  half  to  four  days.  Upon  hatching,  the  larvae  are 
quite  agile,  running  about  readily  if  disturbed.  They 
are  almost  transparent  in  color  but  become  gradually 
of  a  greenish-yellow  color,  the  greenish  tint  due  doubt- 
less to  the  contained  food.  These  larvae  are  somewhat 
gregarious  in  their  habits,  and  may  be  \seen  feeding 
together  in  groups.  They  use  the  spines  on  the  end 
of  the  abdomen  to  drive  away  intruders,  by  striking 
right  and  left.  In  almost  all  cases  it  has  the  desired 
effect,  and  the  victim  seems  glad  to  get  away.  The 
larval  stage  lasts  from  seven  to  nine  days.  The 
nymph  stage  lasts  for  four  days,  the  insect  remaining 
almost  in  the  same  tracks  throughout  the  period,  if 
left  undisturbed.  No  food  is  taken. 

"The  third  and  last  molt  of  the  insect  is  from  the 
nymph  to  the  adult  condition.  A  newly  developed 
adult  is  quite  light  in  color,  and  does  not  acquire  the 
normal  color  for  twelve  to  fifteen  hours.  The  length 
of  life  of  an  adult  was  not  satisfactorily  determined. 
Specimens  were  kept,  however,  for  nearly  three  days, 
when  they  met  with  an  accident.  From  the  above  it 
wiirbe  seen  that  the  total  life  cycle  of  the  insect  in 
Florida  is  approximately  sixteen  days.  ...  In 
Florida  there  are  probably  no  distinct  broods,  as  all 
stages  may  be  found  at  the  same  time.  Allowing  for 


£2  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

the  life  cycle  at  sixteen  days,  a  large  number  of  broods 
could  occur  during  the  year,  but  unfavorable  conditions 
keep  them  reduced  except  during  the  spring  and 
perhaps  early  summer,  so  that  it  will  probably  not 
happen  that  they  will  develop  throughout  a  year, 
according  to  their  capabilities. 

"Several  insecticides  were  tried  against  this  insect. 
They  may  be  successfully  controlled  by  the  use  of 
whale  oil  soap  (Anchor  brand),  at  the  rate  of  one 
pound  of  soap  to  four  gallons  of  water ;  or  by  the 
use  of  rose  leaf  insecticide,  at  the  rate  of  one  pint 
to  four  gallons  of  water.  The  use  of  kerosene  emul- 
sion will  also  be  found  effective. 

"In  spraying  against  the  insect,  it  should  be  done 
thoroughly ;  the  soil  around  the  plant  should  also  be 
sprayed  as  well  as  the  stems  of  cabbages  and  cauli- 
flowers, thus  destroying  the  pupae  that  may  be  in 
hiding." 

Onion  Cutworms — The  onion  growers  of  some 
parts  of  New  York  state  and  other  onion  growing 
districts  throughout  the  northern  half  of  the  United 
States,  have  occasionally  suffered  severe  losses  by  the 
depredations  of  one  of  the  cutworms,  the  dark-sided 
cutworm  (Carneades  messoria),  known  also  under  the 
names  onion  cutworm,  climbing  rustic  and  reaping 
rustic.  This  climbing  cutworm  does  not  confine  its 
work  to  the  onion  field,  but  also  attacks  other  garden 
plants,  as  well  as  flower  buds  upon  trees  and  shrubs. 
The  worm  itself,  while  young  and  small,  climbs  up 
on  the  plants  in  search  for  the  tenderest  parts,  and  in 
that  stage  only  takes  the  tips  of  the  onions.  When 
older,  the  worms  become  too  clumsy  to  climb  and 
content  themselves  with  eating  off  the  plants  'at  the 
surface  of  the  ground.  They  usually  feed  at  night, 
but  may,  when  food  is  scarce,  march  from  plant  to 
plant  by  day,  as  does  the  army  worm,  traveling  slowly 


INSECTS    AND    DISEASES  93 

and  leaving  behind  them  only  the  stubs  and  roots. 
None  of  my  onion  patches  have  ever  suffered  from 
the  depredations  of  cutworms.  In  fact,  clean  culture 
and  an  intensive  system  of  gardening  which  calls  for 
continued  cropping,  following  one  crop  closely  with 
another  to  the  very  end  of  the  season,  have  banished 
cutworms,  grubs  and  wireworms  almost  entirely  from 
my  fields. 

To  Bulletin  No  120  of  the  New  York  state 
experiment  station,  Geneva,  I  am  indebted  for  the 
following  life  history  of  the  onion  cutworm:  "It  is 
probable  that,  on  the  onion  fields  at  least,  the  eggs  are 
mostly  laid  in  the  late  fall  upon  the  weeds  and  other 
debris  remaining  upon  uncultivated  spots  in  the  fields, 
along  ditch  borders  and  fences,  or  on  adjoining  high- 
lands. From  these  highlands  the  weeds  and  eggs  are 
borne  upon  the  fields  by  the  high  waters  of  early 
spring  and  furnish  starting  points  for  the  spread  of 
the  young  worms.  These  also  advance  from  the  bor- 
ders of  the  field  and  from  the  ditch  banks.  Some  of 
the  eggs  may  hatch  in  the  fall,  and  the  young  worms 
feed  for  a  time  before  going  into  winter  quarters  in 
the  ground,  and  some  of  the  moths  probably  remain 
alive  though  dormant  during  the  winter  and  resume 
egg  laying  in  the  spring.  The  small  size  of  the 
worms,  however,  when  they  are  first  seen  feeding 
in  the  spring,  and  their  occurrence  in  such  numbers 
on  the  gray  soils  which  receive  so  much  of  the  wash 
of  "the  uplands  and  in  scattered  spots  in  the  fields 
where  the  water-borne  debris  is  found,  would  seem 
to  indicate  that  they  reach  these  places  in  the  egg 
form  upon  the  weeds,  hatch  early  in  the  spring,  and 
spread  soon  to  the  onions.  They  begin  to  feed  early 
in  May,  and  when  first  noticed  (May  12)  they  were 
from  one-tenth  to  one-half  grown,  and  were  from 
one-eighth  to  one-fourth  of  an  inch  in  length.  They 


94  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

eat  ravenously  and  continue  to  grow  until  they  finish 
feeding,  sometime  before  the  middle  of  June.  They 
are  then  about  an  inch  and  a  quarter  in  length,  and 
are  marked  upon  the  sides  by  a  decided  dark  band  or 
stripe.  They  now  burrow  into  the  ground  a  short 
distance  and  form  small  cavities  in  which  they  change, 
first  to  dark  brown  chrysalids,  and  then  into  moths. 
The  moths  may  emerge  at  any  time  between  the 
last  of  July  and  October,  and  they  soon  begin  to  lay 
their  eggs." 

The  following  treatment  is  recommended  for 
severe  visitations  of  this  enemy.  Mix  thirty  pounds 
of  dry  bran  and  middlings  in  equal  parts,  with  one 
pound  of  Paris  green.  "This  mixture  can  be  dis- 
tributed by  means  of  an  onion  seed  drill,  and  thus 
deposited  evenly  and  continuously  about  the  margins 
of  the  fields  before  the  advancing  destroyers.  It  forms 
a  line  of  defense  across  which  the  worms  will  seldom 
pass  without  feasting  to  their  death.  If  the  worms 
become  scattered  over  the  fields,  the  dry  bait  can  be 
applied  quickly  and  uniformly  alongside  the  rows  by 
use  of  the  drill. 

"This  treatment  is  fully  as  efficient  as  hand  pick- 
ing, is  less  expensive,  and  is,  for  onions,  at  least,  a 
very  satisfactory  defense  against  the  cutworms.  It 
can  also  be  used  successfully  and  with  ease  to  protect 
cabbages,  tomatoes,  egg  plants,  sweet  potatoes,  straw- 
berries and  similar  garden  plants,  by  surrounding  each, 
at  time  of  transplanting,  with  a  little  of  the  poisoned 
mixture. 

"If  the  onion  grower  will  have  ready  for  the  cut- 
worms when  they  first  appear  upon  the  grass  about 
his  fields  a  meal  of  the  tempting  but  deadly,  poisoned 
dry.  bait,  and  will  offer  this  food  to  them  whenever 
and  wherever  they  appear  among  the  onions,  his  loss 
from  their  ravages  will  be  but  small." 


INSECTS    AND    DISEASES  95 

White  grubs  (larvae  of  the  May  beetle)  and 
wireworms  (larvae  of  snapping  bugs)  are  sometimes 
found  feeding  at  the  onion  roots.  It  may  be  possible 
to  drive  away  the  grubs  by  applications  of  caustic 
liquids,  such  as  lime  water,  saturated  solutions  of 
kainit,  or  of  muriate  of  potash;  although  I  am  not 
sure  on  this  point.  The  wireworm  is  too  tough, 
however,  to  be  affected  by  such  means.  The  best  way 
of  fighting  these  troublesome  customers  is  to  plow 
and  thoroughly  pulverize  our  fields  in  autumn,  or  any 
time  after  latter  part  of  July. 

The  Smut  of  Onions  (Urocystis  Apulae  Frost) — 
A  very  serious  disease  of  the  onion  plant,  but  from 
which  the  onions  grown  on  the  new  plan  of  growing 
and  transplanting  seedlings  have  little  to  fear,  is  the 
rust,  smut  or  blight.  This  disease  has  recently  played 
havoc  in  several  of  our  great  onion  districts,  especially 
where  onions  have  been  grown  in  succession  for  a 
number  of  years.  The  spores  seem  to  remain  in  the 
soil,  reappearing  after  a  long  series  of  years  when 
onions  are  again  grown.  Smut  attacks  the  onion  at 
the  time  the  seed  germinates  and  then  only.  Its  ap- 
pearance shows  itself  in  black  streaks  on  the  stems; 
afterward  the  stem  bursts,  and  the  black  powder  is 
seen  more  plainly.  The  onion  never  develops,  but 
rots.  Pull  up  and  destroy  the  diseased  plants,  and 
another  year  plant  on  new  soil.  That  is  about  all  that 
I  could  suggest  as  a  preventive  or  remedy  for  smut. 

The  following  excerpt  is  from  the  annual  report 
of  the  Connecticut  agricultural  experiment  station : 

General  Characters — The  presence  of  smut  in 
onions  is  first  indicated  by  one  or  several  dark  spots 
at  different  hights  in  the  leaves  of  seedlings,  which  are 
seen  to  be  more  or  less  opaque  when  the  plant  is  held 
up  to  the  light.  These  dark  appearances  may  be  seen 
in  the  first  leaf,  before  the  second  leaf  has  begun  to 


96  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

develop  at  all,  and  are  more  commonly  found  just 
below  the  "knee" ;  though  they  sometimes  occur  above 
it.  After  a  time,  usually  while  the  second  leaf  is 
developing,  longitudinal  cracks  begin  to  appear  on  one 
side  of  these  spots,  which  widen  and  show  within  a 
dry,  fibrous  mass,  covered  with  a  black,  sooty  powder 
made  up  wholly  of  the  ripened  fruit  or  spores  of 
the  fungus,  which  are  blown  or  washed  out  onto  the 
ground.  In  some  cases  the  smut  may  appear  only 
toward  the  upper  end  of  the  first  leaf,  and  become 
cut  off  from  the  main  body  of  the  plant  by  the  with- 
ering of  the  former.  In  such  a  case  an  onion  which 
has  shown  smut  in  its  first  leaf  appears,  in  some 
instances,  to  recover,  showing  no  signs  of  smut  in 
its  subsequent  growth ;  but  as  a  rule  the  same  dark 
appearance  shows  itself  in  the  second  leaf  and  those 
subsequently  formed,  and  if  the  seedling  is  pulled  up 
and  examined,  the  whole  plant  will  be  found  to  be 
pervaded  by  the  disease  to  a  greater  or  less  extent. 
Plants  thus  diseased,  especially  if  the  soil  is  dry,  very 
commonly  succumb  early,  drying  while  in  the  second 
or  third  leaf.  The  stronger  plants,  however,  espe- 
cially if  the  ground  is  moist,  are  able  to  resist  the  smut 
sufficiently  to  make  a  considerable  growth,  and  many 
survive  even  up  to  the  time  of  harvesting. 

Distribution  and  Severity — The  onion  smut  occurs 
in  Massachusetts,  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania,  if  not  in 
several  other  states;  Connecticut  appears  to  suffer 
more  from  this  disease  than  any  other  locality. 

The  severity  of  the  disease  in  different  localities 
is  variable.  It  appears  at  first  in  isolated  spots  here 
and  there  in  a  field,  and  from  these  spreads  in  all 
directions  until  the  whole  piece  becomes  affected,  and 
the  cultivation  of  onions  upon  it  has  to  be  discon- 
tinued. This  period  from  the  first  appearance  of  the 
smut  to  the  enforced  discontinuance  of  the  onion  crop, 


INSECTS    AND    DISEASES  97 

appears  to  be,  on  new  ground,  never  less  than  five 
years. 

It  appears  to  be  during  the  germination  and 
earliest  growth  of  the  onion  seed  only  that  the  fungus 
threads,  developed  from  the  spores,  make  their  en- 
trance into  the  onion  seedling.  Onions  grown  in 
warm,  light  soils  are  usually  more  likely  to  be  smutted 
than  if  they  are  grown  in  heavy,  wet  land. 
It  seems  undoubtedly  true  that  the  yellow  and  espe- 
cially the  red  varieties  are  less  susceptible  than  the 
white  to  this,  as  to  most  other  diseases  affecting 
the  crop. 

Dissemination — The  popular  impression  that  smut 
is  disseminated  principally  in  the  planted  seed  is  one 
which  is  quite  erroneous.  As  a  matter  of  fact  seed 
onions  are  not  attacked  by  smut,  and  the  presence  of 
smut  spores  in  the  seed  is  not  to  be  considered  for  a 
moment  as  a  cause  of  its  dissemination.  It  is  very 
probable,  however,  that  smut  may  in  some  instances 
be  carried  on  seeds  grown  in  smutted  districts,  the 
spores  adhering  to  their  surface  as  any  small  particles 
of  dust  might  do.  Any  course  of  procedure  in  har- 
vesting or  in  preparing  seed  which  involved  the  dust- 
ing of  even  a  small  amount  of  smutted  earth  upon 
it,  would  render  the  seed  dangerous  for  this  reason. 
Proper  care  in  gathering  and  handling  seed  should, 
however,  obviate  this  danger  entirely. 

The  local  dissemination  of  smut  is  due  to  four 
principal  causes.  First,  through  agricultural  imple- 
ments, plows,  harrows,  weeders,  rakes,  etc,  which 
spread  the  soil  containing  smut  spores,  both  by  scatter- 
ing the  surface  earth  over  a  smutted  field  and,  unless 
they  are  thoroughly  cleaned,  by  carrying  earth  con- 
taining smut  spores  into  fields  subsequently  worked 
upon.  Secondly,  through  the  adherence  of  the  same 
smutted  earth  to  the  feet  of  men  and  farm  animals 


98  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

and  its  consequent  transportation  from  one  part  of  a 
field  to  another  or  to  different  fields ;  an  agency  by  no 
means  unimportant.  Thirdly,  the  smut  spores  may 
be  readily  washed  with  surface  earth  from  higher  to 
lower  ground,  as  is  a  matter  of  common  observation. 
Fourthly,  popular  opinion  to  the  contrary,  the  spores 
being  practically  imponderable  may  be  readily  blown, 
with  other  dust-like  material,  either  about  the  same 
field,  or  into  adjoining  fields.  The  reason  that  this 
mode  of  dissemination  is  of  less  importance  than  some 
others,  lies  probably  in  the  fact  that  the  spores  being 
formed  and  making  their  exit  from  the  onion  com- 
paratively near  to  the  ground,  are  readily  washed  into 
it  by  rain,  and  have  little  opportunity  for  blowing 
directly  into  the  air,  as  is  the  case  with  corn  smut, 
for  example. 

It  may  be  mentioned  here  that  the  smut  appears 
to  be  very  attractive  to  the  "flea  beetles,"  which  swarm 
over  the  ruptured  parts  of  diseased  seedlings  and  ap- 
parently feed  upon  the  spores,  although  they  do  not 
seem  to  trouble  the  healthy  onion  leaf.  That  these 
or  other  insects  may  serve  to  spread  the  smut,  in  a 
way  similar  to  that  observed  in  some  other  fungi,  is 
not  impossible. 

General  Precautions — Attention  should  perhaps 
be  called  here  to  a  few  general  precautions  which  may 
be  of  service  against  the  Urocystis,  the  most  important 
of  which  have  already  been  referred  to  in  connection 
with  its  dissemination  by  farm  implements,  etc.  Such 
implements  should  never  be  used  on  smutted  ground 
and  then  upon  new  ground,  without  thoroughly  wash- 
ing off  all  adhering  earth.  The  same  may  be  said  in 
regard  to  any  means  by  which  smutted  earth  may 
be  transported. 

All  refuse  of  whatever  kind  that  is  left  on  the 
field  should  be  burned  as  soon  as  practicable,  and 


INSECTS    AND    DISEASES  99 

although  onion  land  is  usually  kept  so  clean  that  it 
cannot  be  burned  over  in  the  fall,  this  practice  will 
be  found  very  advantageous  when  it  is  possible. 

At  'the  second  and  subsequent  hand-  weedings  all 
onions  which  show  smut  in  the  second  or  third  leaf 
should  be  pulled,  collected  in  a  basket  or  other  con- 
venient receptacle  and  burned  at  once.  This  practice 
involves  very  little  trouble,  and  the  folly  of  leaving 
the  larger  smutted  onions  to  discharge  crop  after  crop 
of  spores  upon  the  ground,  as  the  leaves  successively 
mature,  is  apparent;  especially  when  the  enormous 
number  of  spores  thus  formed  is  considered.  It  is 
hardly  an  overestimate  to  say  that  a  single  large  onion 
may  mature  during  a  season  something  like  a  cubic 
inch  of  smut,  which  means  between  one  and  two  thou- 
sand millions  of  spores,  each  capable  of  producing  a 
smutty  onion  in  the  following  season. 

If  an  onion  grower  has  unlimited  land  suitable 
for  the  crop  it  is  almost  superfluous  to  say  that  the 
best  means  of  avoiding  smut  is  to  take  up  new  land 
as  soon  as  the  old  shows  signs  of  the  disease  to  any 
considerable  extent;  but,  as  has  been  previously  re- 
marked, this  is  not  a  remedy  for  smut,  any  more  than 
it  would  be  a  remedy  to  stop  raising  onions  altogether 
in  affected  sections. 

Transplanting,  as  a  Preventive  of  Smut  upon 
Onions — Two  methods  of  raising  onions  have  long 
been  practiced  by  Connecticut  growers;  one  directly 
from  seed,  the  other  from  small  onions  of  the  previous 
year's  growth,  called  "sets."  ...  It  has  been 
observed  that  onions  raised  from  sets  remain  free  from 
the  disease  even  upon  fields  where  onions  raised 
from  seed  always  suffer  more  or  less  seriously. 
Thaxter  first  ...  demonstrated  that  the  smut 
fungus  enters  the  onion  seedling  only  while  the  latter 
is  beneath  the  surface  of  the  ground.  .  .  .  The  fact 


100  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

of  the  immunity  of  transplanted  seedlings  was  men- 
tioned by  Thaxter  in  this  connection. 

The  method  of  growing  onions  by  starting  the 
seed  in  hotbeds,  and  transplanting  the  seedlings  to  the 
field,  was  suggested  in  1891  by  Mr  T.  Greiner  of  La 
Salle,  New  York,  and  has  since  been  practiced  by  him 
and  by  others  with  marked  success.  Several  of  the 
experiment  stations  also  have  tried  this  method.  But 
all  of  these  experiments  have  had  for  their  object 
increase  in  the  size  and  value  of  the  onion  crop.  As 
far  as  that  was  concerned  they  were  successful  in 
proving  that  larger  yields  are  obtained  at  no  greater 
expense,  and  that  the  onions  are  larger  and  mature 
earlier  than  onions  grown  from  seed  sown  in  the  open. 
But  it  seemed  more  than  likely  that  this  method  would 
have  another  important  advantage  in  producing  a 
sound  crop  of  onions  even  upon  smutty  land. 

It  seems  fair  to  conclude  that  by  raising  seedlings 
in  flats,  and  transplanting  to  the  open  ground,  a  clean 
crop  of  onions  can  be  grown  even  upon  land  thor- 
oughly infested  with  smut. 

The  Onion  Mildew  (Peronospora  Schleideni 
Ung) — This  fungus,  which  is  similar  in  nature  to  the 
downy  mildew  of  the  grape  {Peronospora  viticola),  is 
well  known  in  Europe  as  producing  a  serious  dis- 
ease of  cultivated  onions,  occuring  also  on  wild 
species.  In  this  country 'it  has  been  known  to  produce 
injury  among  onions  in  Wisconsin,  specimens  having 
been  collected  at  Ithaca  in  that  state.  In  Wethersfield, 
Connecticut,  it  was  observed  only  upon  seed  onions. 
.  .  .  In  regard  to  remedies  against  this  mildew, 
preventive  rather  than  curative  measures  seem  to  offer 
the  best  prospects  of  good  results.  Knowing  that  it  is 
perpetuated  over  winter  and  originates  during  the 
following  season  by  means  of  resting  spores,  which 


INSECTS    AND    DISEASES  IOI 

survive  in  the  dead  tissues  of  the  onion  leaves  and 
stalks,  the  necessity  for  destroying  all  such  refuse  needs 
hardly  to  be  pointed  out.  The  common  practice  of 
plowing  in  stalk  and  field  refuse  generally  cannot  be 
too  strongly  condemned,  and  in  the  present  instance 
renders  the  infection  of  onions  grown  on  the  same 
land  another  year  almost  certain.  The  stalks  should 
__  invariably  be  burned  in  a  manner  to  render  their 
destruction  as  complete  as  possible.  The  repeated  use, 
for  the  same  crop,  of  land  on  which  the  disease  has 
appeared,  should  be  avoided ;  and  in  localities  where 
the  disease  is  known  to  exist,  the  use  of  low  sheltered 
land  should  be  avoided  for  this  crop. 

The  Onion  Macrosporium  (Macrosporium  sarci- 
nula  Berk;  variety  parasiticum  Thum) — In  a  majority 
of  cases,  the  mildew  just  described  was  followed  by  a 
black  appearance,  resulting  from  the  growth  of  a  fun- 
gus wholly  different  from  the  Peronospora,  namely,  the 
onion  Macrosporium  (M.  sarcinula  var  parasiticum). 
Although  more  common  and  conspicuous  among  seed 
onions  which  have  suffered  from  the  mildew,  this 
fungus  appears  to  be  almost  universal  among  onions 
in  the  state,  occurring  on  market  as  well  as  seed  onions 
and  sets.  Jt  is  much  more  conspicuous  on  the  seed 
stalks  than  elsewhere,  forming  a  deep  black,  velvety 
coating,  which  sometimes  involves  the  whole  stalk. 
On  the  leaves  it  is  less  conspicuous,  often  brownish 
or  not  so  evenly  black,  and  when  the  mildew  has  not 
preceded  it,  it  is  less  evenly  diffused,  occurring  here 
and  there  in  patches. 

In  regard  to  remedies  in  the  case  of  this  disease, 
it  is  not  probable  that  any  direct  treatment  would  be 
advisable;  but  it  should  be  kept  in  check  by  the  sys- 
tematic destruction  of  all  stalks  and  field  refuse  gener- 
ally, which  can  only  be  done  effectually  by  burning. 


102  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

.Plowing  in  such  refuse,  or  composting  it,  should 
never  be  resorted  to  under  any  circumstances. 

The  Onion  V ermicularia  (V ermicularia  circinans 
Berk) — The  outer  bulb  scales  of  the  white  varieties 
of  onions,  before  they  are  harvested,  are  often  attacked 
by  a  black  growth,  quite  inconspicuous  at  this  time, 
and  composed  usually  of  a  central  black  dot,  or  small 
ring,  outside  of  which  one  or  more  larger  rings  are 
arranged  concentrically  and  with  greater  or  less 
regularity.  When  kept  in  a  moderately  moist,  warm 
atmosphere,  this  black  appearance  extends  itself  with 
considerable  rapidity,  either  growing  in  concentric 
circles  or  successive  wavy  lines,  or  forming  evenly 
black  areas  on  the  bulb.  At  first  this  is  confined  to 
the  outer  layer  of  scales ;  but,  as  the  disease  extends, 
it  penetrates  several  successive  layers,  inducing  decay 
and  often  presenting  an  appearance,  beneath  the  outer 
layer,  hardly  distinguishable,  at  first  sight,  from  the 
onion  smut.  If  the  black  rings  and  blotches  are 
examined  closely  they  may  be  readily  seen  to  be  com- 
posed of  numerous  black  points  of  various  size,  single 
or  running  together  in  clumps,  and  apparently  made 
up  for  the  most  part  of  very  minute  bristles. 

The  economic  importance  of  this  disease  rests 
upon  the  fact  that,  although  it  does  not  as  a  rule 
injure  the  onions  seriously,  or  become  conspicuous 
upon  them  until  after  they  are  housed,  it  often  attacks 
them  subsequently  to  such  an  extent  as  greatly  to  dis- 
figure them,  and  impair  their  value  for  marketing 
purposes.  Some  idea  of  the  serious  nature  of  the 
disease  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  one  gentle- 
man, whose  statement  is  wholly  reliable,  estimates 
his  actual  loss  from  this  cause  during  the  past  season 
at  several  thousand  dollars. 

The  fungus  is  introduced  into  the  onion  house 
from  the  field,  where  it  occurs  not  very  abundantly 


INSECTS    AND  .DISEASES  IO3 

on  the  bulbs  before  they  are  pulled,  especially  if  they 
have  been  weakened  from  any  cause,  and  among  the 
housed  onions  it  propagates  itself  with  a  severity 
proportional  to  the  favorableness  of  the  conditions 
offered  it  for  the  formation,  dissemination  and  ger- 
mination of  its  spores  above  described.  These  con- 
ditions are  warmth  and  moisture,  and  the  proximity 
of  uninfected  bulbs.  It  may  be  communicated  by 
contact  with  diseased  bulbs  or  with  any  object,  such 
as  the  hands,  or  tools  that  have  been  subjected  to  such 
contact,  and  may  be  also  spread  by  strong  drafts 
which  blow  about  the  spores  or  dry  scales  containing 
them. 

The  most  important  precaution  which  can  be 
taken  against  the  disease  consists  in  housing  the 
onions  during  dry  weather  after  the  bulbs  are  thor- 
oughly dried  off.  No  bins  which  have  contained  such 
black  onions  should  be  used  a  second  time,  until  they 
have  been  thoroughly  cleaned  and  sprinkled  with  quick- 
lime, or  quicklime  and  sulphur.  All  danger  of  heat- 
ing should  be  avoided,  and  the  onions  stored  in  as 
cool  and  dry  a  place  as  possible,  which  can  be  arranged 
to  be  ventilated  in  dry  weather  and  shut  up  when  the 
atmosphere  is  moist.  Should  the  fungus  be  noticed 
on  the  bulbs  at  the  time  of  storing,  or  in  any  case 
when  there  has  been  previous  damage  from  this  cause, 
it  is  probable  that  a  treatment  with  dry  air-slaked 
lime,  such  as  has  been  recommended  with  success  for 
potatoes  (one  bushel  of  lime  to  twenty-five  bushels 
of  onions),  applied  at  the  time  of  storing,  would 
prove  of  great  service  in  checking  the  spread  of  the 
fungus.  The  utility  of  this  practice,  however,  needs 
confirmation  by  actual  experiment  before  it  can  be 
definitely  recommended.  In  any  case,  such  treatment 
should  be  made  at  the  outset,  since  it  would  have 


IO4  THE    NEW    ONION    CULTURE 

comparatively   little   influence   after   the   disease   was 
well  established. 

The  question  has  been  asked  whether  bulbs  at- 
tacked by  the  V ermicularia  can  safely  be  used  for  seed 
onions,  and  it  may  be  said  that  this  can  be  done  with 
perfect  safety,  provided  that  the  fungus  has  not  at- 
tacked them  sufficiently  to  have  induced  rotting;  since 
as  a  rule  the  surface  layers  only  are  affected,  the  bulb 
being  otherwise  sound.  No  infection  of  the  seed  or 
seed  stalks  is  to  be  feared ;  but  the  old  bulb  will  be 
likely  to  harbor  the  fungus  during  the  summer,  and 
communicate  it  to  market  onions  if  planted  near  them. 


CHAPTER    XII 
Growing  Onions  in  the  Southern  States 

REPORT  FROM  PROF  W.   F.   MASSEY  OF  NORTH   CAROLINA 

It  was  long  the  general  opinion,  and  is  still  the 
opinion  of  some,  that  in  the  South  the  onion  crop  must 
always  be  treated  as  a  biennial  and  grown  from  sets. 
It  was  thought  that  the  crop  could  not  be  produced  in 
the  warmer  climate  of  the  southern  states  the  same 
year  from  spring  sown  seeds. 

The  reason  for  these  erroneous  notions  was  that 
the  southern  gardener  copied  too  closely  the  methods 
laid  down  in  books  written  for  the  North.  Thus, 
sowing  the  seed  at  the  time  which  is  proper  for  the 
northern  states  resulted  in  sets  rather  than  onions, 
because  the  hot  weather  comes  too  soon  for  them  and 
causes  them  to  stop  growing.  But  when,  we  took  into 
consideration  the  hardiness  of  the  plant  and  the  differ- 
ence in  climate,  and  sowed  the  seed  in  February  instead 
of  April,  we  had  as  long  and  cool  season  for  them  as 
in  the  North,  and  the  result  was  fully  as  good  a  crop 
of  ripe  onions  as  can  be  grown  anywhere. 

But  the  development  of  market  gardening  in  the 
South  of  late  years  has  brought  a  demand  for  an  early 
onion  which  can  be  bunched  when  half  grown  and 
put  on  the  market  green.  For  this  purpose,  the  sets 
are  essential.  We  grow  the  sets  by  sowing  seed  very 
thickly  in  soil  of  only  moderate  fertility  early  in  April. 
We  use  the  Queen  onion  for  this  purpose,  as  it  is  a 
very  early  sort  and  is  also  quite  hardy  in  the  winter. 
The  sets  are  taken  up  as  soon  as  the  tops  ripen  and 


IO6  THE    NEW    ONION     CULTURE 

spread  in  a  dry  place  with  the  tops  on,  as  they  keep 
better  in  this  way.  In  September  the  tops  are  cleaned 
off  and  the  sets  prepared  for  planting.  This  can  be 
done  at  any  time  in  the  fall  up  to  November,  but  the 
earlier  the  better. 

We  mark  off  the  land  in  rows  twenty  inches 
apart  or  even  less,  for  all  the  cultivation  needed  can 
easily  be  done  with  a  wheel  hoe  run  by  man  power. 
Light  mellow  soil  is  needed,  and  it  should  be  high  and 
well  drained.  In  the  furrows  we  place  about  1000 
pounds  per  acre  of  a  mixture  of  goo  pounds  of  acid 
phosphate,  600  pounds  of  cottonseed  meal,  and  400 
pounds  of  muriate  of  potash  to  make  a  top.  This 
has  a  furrow  thrown  over  it  from  each  side,  making  a 
sharp  list.  The  lists  are  flattened  somewhat  and  in 
shallow  furrows  made  on  them  the  sets  are  planted 
deeply  so  that  they  will  be  about  on  the  level  soil 
when  the  earth  is  drawn  from  them  in  February,  but 
we  set  them  deep  as  a  winter  protection.  These  sets 
are  for  the  early  green  onion  only.  For  a  ripe  crop 
we  prepare  the  land  thoroughly  and  sow  the  seed  in 
the  spring  about  the  middle  of  February  and  thin 
them  when  up  to  about  three  inches  in  the  row.  We 
use  the  same  fertilization  as  for  the  fall  sets.  For 
this  crop  we  have  found  nothing  better  than  the 
Southport  White  Globe,  as  it  keeps  better  than  any 
onion  we  have  grown,  and  we  have  tested  eighteen 
or  twenty  other  varieties. 

The  yellow  Potato  onion  is  about  the  earliest  ripe 
onion  that  can  be  put  on  the  market,  and  it  generally 
pays  very  well,  because  the  market  is  at  that  time 
pretty  bare  of  ripe  onions.  But  the  Potato  onion  must 
be  sold  as  soon  as  ripe,  for  it  is  a  poor  keeper.  It 
makes  no  seed,  but  produces  offsets  from  the  bulbs, 
which  are  set  in  the  fall  as  other  sets,  a  small  set 
making  a  big  onion  and  a  larger  one  two  to  three  of 


ONION    GROWING    IN    THE    SOUTH  IO7 

marketable  size.  There  is  another  onion  of  the  same 
character  but  white  in  color,  which  is  used  at  times 
for  early  green  onions.  This  one  never  grows  as 
large  as  the  yellow  Potato  onion,  but  is  one  of  the 
best  keepers,  and  its  white  color  makes  it  desirable 
for  the  bunching  in  spring. 

Of  late  years  there  has  been  a  great  deal  of  talk 
in  regard  to  a  new  method  of  growing  onions.  This 
is  to  sow  the  seed  under  glass  in  winter  or  early  spring, 
and  transplant  them  later.  This  method  is  of  no 
advantage  in  the  culture  of  the  ordinary  American 
varieties,  but  works  very  well  with  the  big  yellow 
onion  sold  under  the  name  of  Prizetaker.  In  the 
South  the  seed  of  this  onion  should  be  sown  in  a 
cold  frame  protected  by  glass  sashes  about  the  middle 
of  January.  Care  must  be  taken  to  give  plenty  of 
air  in  the  frame  and  to  keep  the  plants  from  drawing 
up  too  tender.  Gradually  expose  them  to  the  air,  so 
that  by  the  last  of  February  or '  early  March  they 
will  be  ready  to  set  in  the  open  ground.  Set  them 
just  as  advised  for  the  sets,  and  when  well  established 
draw  the  earth  from  them  so  as  to  have  the  onions 
resting  on  the  surface  and  only  the  roots  in  the  ground. 
This  onion  makes  the  big  yellow  onion  seen  at  times 
in  boxes  in  the  grocery  stores,  and  is  the  largest  onion 
grown  and  one  of  the  mildest. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bulletins  and  reports  containing  references  on 
onion  growing,  published  by  experiment  stations  and 
the  United  States  department  of  agriculture : 

I.      GENERAL   CULTURE    OF    THE    ONION,    INCLUDING    FERTILIZATION 
OF    THE    SOIL 

Department  of  Washington,   Farmers'   Bulletin  No  39. 

Alabama  Station  Bulletin  No  51. 

Arkansas  Station  Bulletin  No  56. 

Connecticut   Storrs   Station  Report   1896,  page  237. 

Florida  Station  Bulletin  No  2;  No  31. 

Indiana  Station   Bulletin   No  53. 

Kansas  Station  Bulletin  No  70. 

Massachusetts  Hatch  Station  Report  1895,  page  299;  1899, 
page  16. 

Minnesota  Bulletin  No  10;  Report  1887-88,  page  225. 

New  York  Station  Bulletin  No  206;  Report  1883,  page 
184;  1884,  page  201;  1891,  page  477. 

North  Carolina  Bulletin  No  83;  No  112. 

North  Dakota  Bulletin  No   18. 

Ohio  Report  1885,  page  126. 

South  Dakota  Bulletin  No  47. 

Tennessee  Bulletin  Vol  XII,  No  3. 

Texas  Bulletin  No  60. 

Virginia  Bulletin  No  n;  No  60. 

II.      THE   NEW   ONION   CULTURE 

Arkansas  Bulletin  No  28;  No  56. 

Connecticut    Station    Report    1895,    page    176. 

Idaho  Bulletin  No  22. 

Louisiana   Bulletin   No  27,   second  series. 

Michigan  Bulletin  No  79. 

North  Dakota  Bulletin  No  12. 

Ohio  Bulletin  Vol  III,  No  9,   second  series. 

Rhode  Island   Bulletin   No   14. 

South  Dakota  Bulletin  No  47. 

Tennessee  Bulletin  Vol  V,  No  4;  Vol  VI,  No  4. 

Texas  Bulletin  No  36;  No  60. 

Utah  Bulletin  No  45. 

West  Virginia  Bulletin  No  39. 

Wyoming  Bulletin  No  22. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


III.      VARIETY    TESTS 

Alabama  College  Bulletin  No  20,  new  series;  Bulletin 
No  51. 

Arizona   Station   Report   1899,  page  252;    1900,   page   158. 

Arkansas  Bulletin  No  28;  No  34;   No  44. 

Colorado  Station  Report  1888,  pages  118,  121;  1889,  pages 
40,  98;  1890,  pages  50,  192;  1892,  pages  51,  58,  66;  1896, 
page  164;  Bulletin  No  26. 

Florida  Bulletin  No  31  ;  Station  Report  1896,  pages  24, 
80;  1898,  page  36. 

Georgia   Station   Report   1899,   page   136. 

Idaho  Bulletin  No  10;   No  22. 

Indiana  Bulletin   No   18. 

Kansas  Bulletin   No  70. 

Kentucky  Bulletin  No  38. 

Louisiana  Bulletin  No  3;   No  36;   No  52,  second  series. 

•  Maryland  Bulletin  No  5. 

Michigan  Bulletin  No  120;  No  144;  No  170. 
Minnesota    Bulletin    No    10;    Station    Report    1888,    pages 
236,  261. 

Nebraska  Bulletin  No  6;   No  12;  No  19. 

*  New  York    Station    Bulletin    No   69;    Report    1882,    page 
125;   1883,  page    183;    1884,   page  200;    1885,   page    119;    1886, 
page  236;   1887,   page   318;    1889,   page   330;    1891,   page   456. 

North  Carolina   Bulletin   No   112. 

North  Dakota   Bulletin   No    18. 

Ohio  Bulletin,  Vol   III,   No  9. 

Oklahoma   Bulletin   No   15. 

Pennsylvania  Station  Report  1893,  page  126;  Bulletin 
No  14. 

South  Dakota  Bulletin  No  47;  No  52;  No  59. 

Tennessee  Bulletin  Vol  VI,  No  4;  Station  Report  1899, 
page  64. 

Texas  Bulletin  No  36. 

Utah  Bulletin   No   45. 

Virginia   Bulletin   No   n;   No  60. 

Washington   Bulletin    No    19. 

West  Virginia  Bulletin  No  22;  No  39. 

IV.      GERMINATION     TESTS     OF     SEED 

Alabama   College   Bulletin   No  2    (1887). 

Maine  Station  Report  1888,  page  140;   1889,  page  150. 

New  York  Station  Report  1882,  page  125;  1883,  pages 
60,  69,  183. 

Ohio  Station  Report  1883,  pages  170,  176;  1885,  pages 
164,  175;  1886,  page  254;  1887,  page  284. 

Oregon  Bulletin  No  2. 


no  THE  NEW  ONION  CULTURE 


Pennsylvania  Station  Report  1889,  page  164. 
South  Carolina   Station   Report   1888,  page  85. 
Vermont  Station  Report   1889,  page   107. 


V.    DISEASES 

Connecticut  Bulletin  No  in;  No  115;  Station  Report 
1889,  page  158;  1890,  page  103;  1895,  page  176. 

North  Dakota  Bulletin   No   12. 

New  Jersey  Station  Report  1890,  page  354;  1894,  page 
351;  1893,  page  352;  1897,  page  300;  1898,  page  319. 

New  York  Station  Bulletin  No  164;  No  182. 

Ohio  Station  Bulletin  No  127;  No  122. 

Oregon  Station  Bulletin  No  27. 

Vermont  Station  Report  1890,  page  141;  1895,  page  113; 
1896-97,  page  61. 

Wisconsin  State  Station  Report  1883,  page  38;  1893, 
page  247. 

VI.      INSECTS 

Colorado   State   Station   Bulletin   No   24 ;    Station    Report 

1894,  page  36. 

Connecticut  State  Station  Report  1889,  page  180;  1894, 
page  139. 

Florida   State   Station   Bulletin    No   46. 

Iowa  State  Station  Bulletin  No  27. 

Michigan   State   Station  Bulletin  No   175. 

Nebraska  State  Station  Report  1898,  page  27. 

New  Jersey  Station  Report  1894,  page  441 ;  1895,  page  447. 

New  York  State  Station  Bulletin  No  83 ;  No  120 ;  Report 

1895,  page  758;   1896,  page  522. 

New  York  Cornell  Experiment  Station  Bulletin  No  78; 
Report  1894,  page  481. 

Ohio  State  Station  Bulletin  No  58. 

United  States  Department  Agriculture,  Division  of  En- 
tomology Bulletin  No  26,  new  series. 

In  the  book  trade  are  found  the  following,  viz : 

ONION  RAISING.  What  kinds  to  raise  and  the  way  to 
raise  them.  By  J.  J.  H.  Gregory.  Illustrated.  First  issued 
in  1865, 

ONIONS  FOR  PROFIT.  By  T.  Greiner.  Illustrated.  First 
published  in  1893. 

More  or  less  full  directions  how  to  grow  onions 
are  also  found  in 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  III 

How  TO  MAKE  THE  GARDEN  PAY.  By  T.  Greiner.  Illus- 
trated. Revised  edition  in  1895. 

THE  GARDEN  BOOK.  By  T.  Greiner.  Illustrated.  Pub- 
lished in  1901, 

and    in   almost   all   other   modern   books    on    general 
gardening. 


IN     CONCLUSION 

I  do  not  despise  "the  good  old  way."  There  is 
and  will  continue  to  be  money  "in  onions,"  even 
when  grown  as  heretofore,  provided  the  grower 
understands  his  business,  and  it  does  not  happen  to  be 
a  year  of  excessive  production.  With  fairly  good  soil, 
heavy  manuring  and  skillful  management  it  is  not  a 
difficult  task  to  grow  600  bushels,  and  even  upward, 
to  the  acre.  Such  crop  should  leave  the  grower  a 
good  profit,  even  at  fifty  cents  a  bushel. 

But  we  have  learned  to  do  better — much  better — 
than  this,  by  practising  the  "new  onion  culture."  This 
is  worth  the  trial  for  any  onion  grower  situated  as 
we  are.  The  average  price  is  much  lower  than  for- 
merly, while  our  lands  have  decreased  in  fertility. 
If  there  is  a  way  to  increase  the  yield,  and  the  price 
at  the  same  time,  we  cannot  afford  to  ignore  it. 

The  good  old  way 

Of  yesterday, 
May  not  be  best 

For  us  to-day. 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Advantages    and    profits 51 

Analysis    of    onions 72 

Barletta    onions,    Assorted   sizes 

of     63 

Bibliography      108 

Bunching  or  green  onions 64 

Conclusion 112 

Crating    choice    onions 

Curing    crib 4° 

Shed    

The   crop 39 

Damping   off i  o 

Expense   of   crop   per   acre 52 

Flat  onions 60 

Flats,  plants  raised  in 3 

Forcing    pits 7 

Greenhouses,    small 

Harvesting  the  crop 38 

When   and  how 38 

Homemade    onion    hoe 36 

Hotbeds    3 

Fire     6 

Level    ground 5 

Sunken    pits 4 

Importance  of  good  plants 14 

Insects  and  diseases 87 

Onion    cutworms 92 

Macrosporium     101 

Maggot     87 

Mildew too 

Smut     95 

Thrip     89 

Vermicularia     102 

Irrigation     37 

Keeping  onions  during  winter...   49 

Manure   13,  71 

Animal    17 

Barnyard    71 

Chemical 17 

Hen     72 

How  to  prepare  it 13 

Put  it  on  thick 16 

Marker,    old   style. 22 

Tracing    wheel 24 

Muck  land  for  onions..... 14 

Nitrogenous    commercial    fertiliz- 
ers    73 

Old  onion  culture,  The 55 

Onion    sieve 62 


PAGE 

Pickling  onions,  Cleaning 63 

For    6 1 

Plants,  how  they  are  grown x 

How  they  are  set 21 

Potash    salts 74 

Quality   for   seed 61 

Receipts  of  crop  per  acre 53 

46  Red    onions 59 

40  Round     onions 59 

39  Seed   bed 1 1 

Growing     68 

Growing  in    Ca'ifqrnia 68 

Sewing  with  a  d"'ll 57 

Selling  from  the  field 49 

The   crop 44 

,  Sets,   growing  onion 64. 

8  Setting  the  plants 21,   25 

Cost    of 21 

Depth    of 29 

Distances    apart    of 21 

Lifting  the  plants 27 

Time    for 29 

Trimming   the   plants 27 

With  tne  dibber 25 

Soil,   how  to  fit 19 

What  to  select 13 

Soils   and   manures 70 

Southern  states,  Onions  in  the 105 

Storage  houses 42 

Strawberries  and  onions 18 

Tillage  as   moisture  preserver...    32 

As  weed  killer 33 

102  Varieties  of  onions 75 

Adriatic   Barletta 81 

American    77 

American    Pearl 81 

Australian    Brown 79 

Barletta    81 

Beaulieu's  Hardy  White 85 

Bermuda   Red 81 

Button    77 

Danvers    77 

Early     Pearl 81 

Early    Yellow    Cracker 79 

Early   White   Queen 82 

Egyptian     76 

El    Paso 83 

Extra  Early  Red 77 

Foreign  varieties 81 


114 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Varieties 

Giant  Gibraltar 84 

Golden    Seal 79 

Italian    May 82 

Large     Mexican 83 

Mammoth    Pompeii 82 

Marzajola     82 

Multiplier     75 

New     Queen 82 

Pearl 82 

Pink   Prizetaker .   81 

Potato    Onion 76 

Prizetaker    80 

Prizewinner     81 

Red   Mammoth  Tripoli 81 

Red  Rocca 82 

Red    Victoria 83 

Rhode  Island  Yellow  Cracker.    79 

Rocca 8 

Shallots    76 

Sjlver     King 83 

Silver    Skin 77 

Silver   White   Aetna 81 

Southport  White  Globe 


Varieties 

Top    76 

Tree    .  76 

Weihersfield    78 

Wethersfield     Red 70 

White  Garganus 

A\-u;i_     /-i     P 


White  GloBe...".      ..." '.".'.'.'. ".V  79' 

White  Italian  Tripoli 83 

White  Portugal 

White  Rocca 82 


White     Victoria 84 

Winter    76 

Yellow     Dutch 79 

Yellow  Globe  Danvers 77 

Yellow    Prizetaker 2 

Yellow    Rocca 82 

Yellow    Strasburg 79 

Zittau 80 

2  Waste  steam  in  greenhouse  heat- 
ing       6 

Weeding     58 

Hand     35 

Wheel   hoes 22,  24 

intering    onions 64 


79  W 


STANDARD    BOOKS. 

Forest  Planting. 

By  H.  NICHOLAS  JARCHOW,  LL.  D.  A  treatise  on  the  care 
of  woodlands  and  the  restoration  of  the  denuded  timber-lands 
on  plains  and  mountains.  The  author  has  fully  described 
those  European  methods  which  have  proved  to  be  most  useful 
in  maintaining  the  superb  forests  of  the  old  world.  This  expe- 
rience has  been  adapted  to  the  different  climates  and  trees  of 
America,  full  instructions  being  given  for  forest  planting  of 
our  various  kinds  of  soil  and  subsoil,  whether  on  mountain 
or  valley.  Illustrated.  250  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth.  $1.50 

Soils  and  Crops  of  the  Farm. 

By  GEORGE  E.  MORROW,  M.  A.,  and  THOMAS  F.  HUNT.  The 
methods  of  making  available,  the  plant  food  in  the  soil  are 
described  in  popular  language.  A  short  history  of  each  of 
the  farm  crops  is  accompanied  by  a  discussion  of  its  culture. 
The  useful  discoveries  of  science  are  explained  as  applied 
in  the  most  approved  methods  of  culture.  Illustrated.  310 
pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth $1.00 

/  .and  Draining. 

A  handbook  for  farmers  on  the  principles  and  practice  of 
draining,  by  MANLY  MILES,  giving  the  results  of  his  extended 
experience  in  laying  tile  drains.  The  directions  for  the  laying 
out  and  the  construction  of  tile  drains  will  enable  the  farmer 
to  avoid  the  errors  of  imperfect  construction,  and  the  disap- 
pointment that  must  necessarily  follow.  This  manual  for 
practical  farmers  will  also  be  found  convenient  for  reference 
in  regard  to  many  questions  that  may  arise  in  crop  growing, 
aside  from  the  special  subjects  of  drainage  of  which  it  treats. 
Illustrated.  200  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth.  .  .  $1.00 

Barn  Plans  and  Outbuildings. 

Two  hundred  and  fifty-seven  illustrations.  A  most  valu- 
able work,  full  of  ideas,  hints,  suggestions,  plans,  etc.,  for  the 
construction  of  barns  and  outbuildings,  by  practical  writers. 
Chapters  are  devoted  to  the  economic  erection  and  use  of 
barns,  grain  barns,  horse  barns,  cattle  barns,  sheep  barns,  corn- 
houses,  smokehouses,  icehouses,  pig  pens,  granaries,  etc.. 
There  are  likewise  chapters  on  birdhouses,  doghouses,  tool 
sheds,  ventilators,  roofs  and  roofing,  doors  and  fastenings, 
workshops,  poultry  houses,  manure  sheds,  barnyards,  root  pits, 
etc.  235  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth.  .  .  .  $1.00 


STANDARD    BOOKS. 

Herbert's  Hints  to  Horse  Keepers. 

By  the  late  HENRY  WILLIAM  HERBERT  (Frank  Forester). 
This  is  one  of  the  best  and  most  popular  works  on  the  horse 
prepared  in  this  country.  A  complete  manual  for  horsemen, 
embracing :  How  to  breed  a  horse ;  how  to  buy  a  horse ;  how 
to  break  a  horse ;  how  to  use  a  horse ;  how  to  feed  a  horse ; 
how  to  physic  a  horse  (allopathy  or  homeopathy)  ;  how  to 
groom  a  horse ;  how  to  drive  a  horse ;  how  to  ride  a  horse, 
etc.  Beautifully  illustrated.  425  pages.  5x7  inches. 
Cloth $1.50 

Diseases  of  Horses  and  Cattle. 

By  DR.  D.  MC!NTOSH,  V.  S.,  professor  of  veterinary 
science  in  the  university  of  Illinois.  Written  expressly  for  the 
farmer,  stockman  ?nd  veterinary  strident.  A  new  work  on 
the  treatment  of  animal  diseases,  according  to  the  modern 
status  of  veterinary  science,  has  become  a  necessity.  Such  an 
one  is  this  volume  of  over  400  pages,  written  by  one  of  the 
most  eminent  veterinarians  of  our  country.  Illustrated.  426 
pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth $i-75 

The  Ice  Crop. 

By  THERON  L.  HILES.  How  to  harvest,  ship  and  use  ice. 
A  complete,  practical  treatise  for  farmers,  dairymen,  ice 
dealers,  produce  shippers,  meat  packers,  cold  storers,  and  all 
interested  in  icehouses,  cold  storage,  and  the  handling  or  use 
,of  ice  in  any  way.  Including  many  recipes  for  iced  dishes  and 
beverages.  The  book  is  illustrated  by  cuts  of  the  tools  and 
machinery  used  in  cutting  and  storing  ice,  and  the  different 
forms  of  icehouses  and  cold  storage  buildings.  Illustrated. 
122  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth.  ....  $1.00 

The  Secrets  of  Health,  or  Hozv  Not  to  Be  Sick,  and 
How  to  Get  Well  from  Sickness. 

By  S.  H.  PLATT,  A.  M.,  M.  D.,  late  member  of  the  Connect- 
icut Eclectic  Medical  Society,  the  National  Eclectic  Medical 
Association,  and  honorary  member  of  the  National  Bacterio- 
logical Society  of  America;  our  medical  editor  and  author  of 
'Talks  With  Our  Doctor"  and  "Our  Health  Adviser."  Nearly 
600  pages.  An  index  of  20  pages,  so  that  any  topic  may  be 
instantly  consulted.  A  new  departure  in  medical  knowledge 
for  the  people — the  latest  progress,  secrets  and  practices  of  all 
schools  of  healing  made  available  for  the  common  people — 
health  without  medicine,  nature  without  humbug,  common 
sense  without  folly,  science  without  fraud.  8l  illustrations. 
576  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth $1.50 


STANDARD    BOOKS. 

Hunter  and  Trapper. 

By  HALSEY  THRASHER,  an  old  and  experienced  sportsman. 
The  best  modes  of  hunting  and  trapping  are  fully  explained, 
and  foxes,  deer,  bears,  etc.,  fall  into  his  traps  readily  by  fol- 
lowing his  directions.  Illustrated.  92  pages.  5x7  inches. 
Cloth $0.50 

Batty's  Practical  Taxidermy  and  Home  Decoration. 

By  JOSEPH  H.  BATTY,  taxidermist  for  the  government 
surveys  and  many  colleges  and  museums  in  the  United  States. 
An  entirely  new  and  complete  as  well  as  authentic  work  on 
taxidermy — giving  in  detail  full  directions  for  collecting 
and  mounting  animals,  birds,  reptiles,  fish,  insects,  and 
general  objects  of  natural  history.  125  illustrations.  204 
pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth.  .  .  .  .  .  $1.00 

Hemp. 

By  S.  S.  BOYCE.  A  practical  treatise  on  the  culture  of 
hemp  for  seed  and  fiber,  with  a  sketch  of  the  history  and 
nature  of  the  hemp  plant.  The  various  chapters  are  devoted 
to  the  soil  and  climate  adapted  to  the  culture  of  hemp  for 
seed  and  for  fiber,  irrigating,  harvesting,  retting  and  machin- ' 
ery  for  handling  hernp.  Illustrated.  112  pages.  5x7  inches. 
Cloth.  .  .......  $0.50 

Alfalfa. 

By  F.  D.  COBURN.  Its  growth,  uses  and  feeding  value. 
The  fact  that  alfalfa  thrives  in  almost  any  soil;  that  without 
reseeding,  it  goes  on  yielding  two,  three,  four  and  sometimes 
five  cuttings  annually  for  five,  ten,  or  perhaps  100  years ;  and 
that  either  green  or  cured  it  is  one  of  the  most  nutritious 
forage  plants  known,  makes  reliable  information  upon  its  pro- 
duction and  uses  of  unusual  interest.  Such  information  is 
given  in  this  volume  for  every  part  of  America,  by  the  highest 
authority.  Illustrated.  164  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth.  $0.50 

Talks  on  Manure. 

By  JOSEPH  HARRIS,  M.  S.  A  series  of  familiar  and 
practical  talks  between  the  author  and  the  deacon,  the  doctor, 
and  other  neighbors,  on  the  whole  subject  of  manures  and 
fertilizers;  including  a  chapter  especially  written  for  it 
by  Sir  John  Bennet  Lawes  of  Rothamsted,  England.  366 

pages.    5x7  inches.     Cloth $1.50 

3 


STANDARD    BOOKS. 

Practical  Forestry. 

By  ANDREW  S.  FULLER.  A  treatise  on  the  propagation, 
planting  and  cultivation,  with  descriptions  and  the  botanical 
and!  popular  names  of  all  the  indigenous  trees  of  the  United 
States,  and  notes  on  a  large  number  of  the  most  valuable 
exotic  species.  Illustrated.  300  pages.  5x7  inches. 
Cloth $1.50 

Irrigation  for  the  Farm,  Garden  and  Orchard. 

By  HENRY  STEWART.  This  work  is  offered  to  those 
American  farmers  and  other  cultivators  of  the  soil  who,  from 
painful  experience,  can  readily  appreciate  the  losses  which 
result  from  the  scarcity  of  water  at  critical  periods.  Fully 
illustrated.  276  pages.  5x7  inches.  Cloth.  .  .  $1.00 

Irrigation  Farming. 

By  LUTE  WILCOX.  A  handbook  for  the  practical  applica- 
tion of  water  in  the  production  of  crops.  A  cpmpiete  treatise 
on  water  supply,  canal  construction,  reservoirs  and  ponds, 
pipes  for  irrigation  purposes,  flumes  and  their  structure, 
methods  of  applying  water,  irrigation  of  field  crops,  the 
garden,  the  orchard  and  vineyard,  windmills  and  pumps, 
appliances  and  contrivances.  New  edition,  revised,  enlarged 
and  rewritten.  Pn/usely  illustrated.  Over  500  pages.  5x7 
inches.  Cloth. $2.00 

Ginseng,  Its  Cultivation.  Harvesting,  Marketing  and 
Market  Value. 

By  MAURICE  G.  KAINS,  with  a  short  account  of  its  history 
and  botany.  It  discusses  in  a  practical  way  how  to  begin  with 
either  seed  or  roots,  soil,  climate  and  location,  preparation, 
planting  and  maintenance  of  the  beds,  artificial  propagation, 
manures,  enemies,  selection  for  market  and  for  improvement, 
preparation  for  sale,  and  the  profits  that  may  be  expected. 
This  booklet  is  concisely  written,  well  and  profusely  illus- 
trated, and  should  be  in  the  hands  of  all  who  expect  to  grow 
this  drug  to  supply  the  export  trade,  and  to  add  a  new  and 
profitable  industry  to  their  farms  and  gardens,  without  inter- 
fering with  the  regular  work.  New  edition.  Revised  and  en- 
larged. Illustrated.  5x7  inches.  Cloth.  .  .  .  $0.50 

Truck  Farming  at  the  South. 

By  A.  OEMLER.  A  work  giving  the  experience  of  a  suc- 
cessful grower  of  vegetables  or  "garden  truck"  for  northern 
markets.  Essential  to  anyone  who  contemplates  entering  this 
profitable  field  of  agriculture.  Illustrated.  274  pages.  5x7 
inches.  Cloth.  .......  $1.00 

4 


I 


RETURN     CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 

TO— ^      202  Main  Library 


LOAN  PERIOD  1 
HOME  USE 

2                               3 

4 

5                               6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 

JAN  03  1989 

:• 

SJcpP 

^  o  o  198? 

ISIWJ=&  —  '-"• 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CAI  IFORNIA   RFRKFLEY 


.YB  47570 
U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


! 


5  2  (!<>(>  2 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


